James Christopher Harrison became known as the “Man with the Golden Arm.” At the age of 14, James had major chest surgery, which required a transfusion of 13 liters of blood. During the three months it took for James to recover, the teen vowed to donate blood when he was old enough. Upon reaching the required minimum donor age of 18, James fulfilled his vow. After he had made a few donations, it was discovered that James had a rare combination of Rh-negative blood and a high level of anti-D antibodies.

Before the availability of lifesaving immunization and treatment, thousands of babies died each year of Rhesus disease, a hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn, and thousands more around the world suffered lifelong disabilities from it.¹ However, a transfusion of lifesaving antibodies from the plasma of people like James can prevent Rh-negative women from developing antibodies during pregnancy that can harm their Rh-positive babies. Unlike whole blood, plasma can be donated as frequently as once every two weeks in Australia.² Spurred by the need to save more babies, James had donated plasma 1,172 times before his donor “retirement” at 81 (Australian policy prohibits blood donations after that age).

For his life-giving golden arm, James was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, nominated for Australian of the Year,³ and earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.⁴ On February 17 this year, at 88, James died peacefully in his sleep.⁵ The scarcity of donors like James to produce sufficient quality and quantity of anti-D has stimulated researchers to attempt to produce a synthetic laboratory-made anti-D, or “James in a Jar.”⁶ During his lifetime, his donations saved the lives of 2.4 million babies in Australia, preventing sickness, disability, infant deaths, and stillbirths.⁷

Every person ever born has been infected by a disease called sin that can only be cured by a supernatural lifesaving transfusion. The only antidote is found in the unique blood of Jesus Christ (1 John 1:7–9). But with so many in need and only one donor, how does one access the needed transfusion? It is readily available to all for free as a gift received through faith (1 John 2:2). Believers also get a booster, as it were, through the Communion service (Matthew 26:26–29, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). The benefit from the physical act of eating the bread and drinking from the fruit of the vine, which represents Christ’s blood, again depends on faith—faith in Christ’s merits, and through “communing” with Him and with fellow believers in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16, 17). Faith is not only the sole way to please God (Hebrews 11:6) but is also the prerequisite to receiving the life-changing forgiveness of sins (Romans 3:28). Perhaps even more visible is what happens after receiving Christ’s lifesaving and life-changing blood transfusion. Christ’s blood also raises the believer to spiritual life (John 6:53–58).

This issue contains many examples of what spiritual life looks like. In “A Wind Starting to Blow” you will read about how the global movement, “I Will Go” got started by students, professors, and university administrators who shared a vision for mission outreach and were empowered through God’s Spirit. That movement grew from a spark in Argentina to spread all over South American Adventist campuses and beyond, and “I Will Go” has been adopted as the title of the Strategic Plan of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.⁸ The article in the series “Footprints of Faith” describes how Eulalia Richards became a health pioneer in the U.K. and Australia. Dr. Richards was a gifted public and academic speaker and author, especially on women’s and girls’ health issues, in addition to being a busy clinician in obstetrics and anesthesia and the mother of three children. Dr. Richards achieved extraordinary professional accomplishments and navigated personal disappointments, all through a living faith in the One who never fails.

Two short reports in this issue of Dialogue show how young people are making an impact today. In Uganda, an evangelistic meeting was held called “Youth for Christ.” In a report on celebrating 10 years of Public Campus Ministries, we hear what is happening in South Korea. Safary Wa-Mbaleka’s article about youth involvement in leadership provides another illustration of living an empowered life. And that is what Dialogue encourages. The purpose of this journal is for readers to come to know faith as it is in Christ, to live out that faith, and to share it wherever they are.

Lisa M. Beardsley-Hardy (PhD, University of Hawai’i at Manoa) is Director of Education, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A., and Editor-in-Chief of Dialogue. E-mail: [email protected].

Recommended Citation

Lisa M. Beardsley-Hardy, "The Man With the Golden Arm," Dialogue 37:2 (2025): 3-4

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. With the widespread use of anti-D immunoprophylaxis, hemolytic disease of the fetus (Rh disease) is now a rare occurrence in developed countries, but it still remains a significant problem in some parts of the world. Globally, it’s estimated that preventable Rh disease still causes around 160,000 fetal and neonatal deaths and 100,000 cases of lifelong disabilities annually. See https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002937819306775#:~:text=Severe%20morbidity%20 and%20death%20because,deaths%20and%20100%2C000%20 disabilities%20annually.
2. “Blood Donation”: Healthdirect: https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/blood-donation#:~:text=8%20weeks-,How%20often%20can%20 I%20donate%20blood%3F,or%20plasma%20every%202%20weeks.
3. State Finalist, Australia’s Local Hero, Australian of the Year Awards 2011, James Harrison OAM: https://web.archive.org/web/20140611190222/http://www.australianoftheyear.org.au/honour-roll/?view=fullView&recipientID=459.
4. Jody Linbeck, “James’s Generosity Put Him in the Guinness Book of World Records,” The Senior (May 5, 2018): https://www.thesenior.com.au/story/5382599/jamess-generosity-put-him-inthe-guinness-book-of-world-records/.
5. Kelly Ng, “Australian Whose Blood Saved 2.4 Million Babies Dies,” BBC News (March 2, 2025): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y4xqe60gyo.
6. Rachel Treisman, “James Harrison, Whose Blood Donations Saved Over 2 Million Babies, Has Died,” NPR: All Things Considered (March 3, 2025): https://www.npr.org/2025/03/03/nx-s1-5316163/jamesharrison-blood-donor.
7. Linbeck, “James’s Generosity Put Him in the Guinness Book of World Records.”
8. https://IWillGo.org contains details of the strategic plan in many languages and information on how you can be part of it.