Meet the man who has donated blood 500 times

Since 1965, Lonnie Williams, 69, has kept to a more than 50-year commitment to donate his blood.

On Tuesday afternoon, he achieved his goal of giving his 500th blood donation at an American Red Cross blood drive in Cecil, Maryland, USA.

“I began giving blood in college in 1965,” he said. “After I got out of the service on Aug. 29, 1968, I began giving blood and platelets two or three times a year.”

He said, “The story of my 300th donation and 300 bowling score was written by the late Jack Palmer in The Crescent-News and picked up by the American Bowling Congress and printed in its magazine. It went all over the world. They sent me a copy of the magazine.”

He then decided to try for his 500th donation.

On whether there was any particular reason for donating blood, he spoke about his late mother-in-law.

“My mother-in-law, Helen Heller, was an angel,” he said. “She had given some 200 blood donations herself before she came down with cancer. When you are given chemotherapy and radiation in treating cancer, you need transfusions of blood and platelets to rebuild your strength. So I donated blood and platelets to help people like my mother-in-law.

“Platelets are the glue that holds blood together,” Williams explained. “Without platelets, your blood will not coagulate. When hemophiliacs are given transfusions, they must receive platelets or if they get a cut, they cannot stop bleeding.”

Williams can give platelets once every seven days and whole blood once every 56 days.

“There is an urgent need for blood donors right now,” he said. “When I give blood, only people who match my blood type can use it, but anyone can use the platelets.”

Health Journo Opinion: He's definitely saved a couple of lives.

Source: Crescent News