Canadian Blood Services is honouring Shuards Sutherland, who made his 1,000th donation at the newest clinic in London on Friday.
The organization says Sutherland is only the sixth person in Canada, and first in Ontario, to reach 1,000.
Sutherland has made multiple types of donations, including blood, which can be donated every 56 days, plasma that can be donated weekly and platelets that can be donated every two weeks.
And he’s been donating every week for more than 20 years.
As for why, he says “You’re saving a life, that to me is what it was all about, why I donate blood. It’s that one hour you spend, costs you nothing, you save someone’s life…Where else can you save a life in an hour?”
And his big heart has rubbed off on his daughter, who has been donating since she was a teenager.
Ann Sutherland says “I donate because I know the products are being used. And I’ve seen with him, the times that he’s had to be called in to help out.”
He made the landmark donation at London’s bright new clinic on Wharncliffe Road, which opened its doors less than a month ago.
Chris Hardy, community development coordinator for Canadian Blood Services, says “We look to help people on an ongoing basis, those trauma victims as well as ongoing cancer victims and to have a consistent supply…there is a need.”
Sutherland was presented with a certificate and a ‘1,000 time’ donor card. But he says he’s not done yet.
“When you get ready to call it quits on living, look back and see, did you actually do something. And I can look back and say and I didn’t give one pint of blood I gave - whatever number it ends up - I can go ‘I gave my all.’”
