Les Eldridge hasn’t given blood in about six years but he still has some pretty impressive statistics under his belt.
The Halifax man had made 347 donations over 56 years when he stopped putting his arm out at the age of 74.
If he had his druthers, he’d still be doing it.
"I was in to have my blood checked three days ago," Eldridge said recently. "My doctor said, ‘You could give blood right now. Everything is correct.’ "
Eldridge gave up donating blood in Canada about 10 years ago because of an issue with his heart, but he started going to Maine and made 14 donations in the U.S. over the next four years, from age 70 to 74.
As a thank you, the blood clinic in Maine gave him a T-shirt emblazoned with American and Canadian flags and the phrases "international donor" and "blood without borders."
Eldridge, now 80, is still committed to the cause and speaks to Nova Scotia community groups about the benefits of donating blood, taking along a 200-litre drum as a visual aid. He has calculated that he gave about 195 litres of his AB-positive blood over more than half a century.
Eldridge made his first donation at 18 when he was a student at Queen Elizabeth High School in Halifax. For the next several years, he made the odd donation here and there.
"By 1989, I had 28 donations, which is nothing," he says. "But then I caught fire."
Eldridge found out about donating plasma, which can be done weekly, as opposed to whole blood donations, which require a 56-day break.
"In six years, I did 303 of them," he said of his weekly visits to the blood bank.
The senior says his dad, who worked at the old Camp Hill Hospital in Halifax, was his inspiration to be a regular donor.
"I remember him one time giving (blood) body to body. He was in one bed and the guy who needed it was in the next bed."
Eldridge, who recently spoke to a group at Bethany United Church in Halifax, made the news in recent years when one of his granddaughters made her first blood donation. And he says his own donating days may not be over. He plans to get a note from his doctor saying he’s still healthy enough to give blood.
Canadian Blood Services has no age restriction on blood donations, although donors older than 70 must get clearance from their doctor each year.
Jim Lord of Bedford holds the local record for blood donations, having recently made his 1,000th.
