Key Points
- Yasser Haragli was at death's door three times when he went into cardiac arrest after a major car accident in 1999.
- The experience made him a lifelong advocate of blood donation.
Yasser Haragli was at death's door three times when he went into cardiac arrest after a major car accident in 1999.
"I ended up in a coma for six weeks. I died three times [went into cardiac arrest]."
He needed 14 units (7 litres) of blood to make it through.
The experience made him a lifelong advocate of blood donation, and it was the reason he showed up on Saturday to take part in the attempt to set a world record for the largest number of blood donors over a 24-hour period.
"I always wanted to give back at least what I got," he said as he rolled up his sleeve to donate blood alongside his 18-year-old son, Ismail.
"And to see the positives to come out of it... When you donate blood, you get a text message when it goes to someone. And it just makes you feel good that you're doing something for the community.
"It's something that I can do, and it doesn't cost me anything; it's a bit of time."
He has now donated 38 times in the last 23 years. For his son, it is his second time donating blood.
Mr Yasser said he is proud that he inspired his son to take action.
"He wanted to donate blood since he was 16, but he had to wait until he was 18. And then his 18th birthday came around, and he donated blood four days later. This is his second donation."
The Haragli family were joined by hundreds of Australians in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide in the large-scale logistical exercise coordinated by the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood service.
The effort was replicated across 19 other countries - including New Zealand, the United States, France and the Philippines - to reach the goal of 50,000 blood donors to help 150,000 people needing donations.
The feat at this scale - six continents and over 24 hours - has never been tried before and is in the process of being registered with the body known as Official World Records, which is recognised by the Council of Notariats of the European Union.
Salli Adil Ali is from the Australian branch of the UK Muslim charity Who is Hussain that came up with the idea to help restore blood donations to pre-pandemic levels.
"Through the pandemic, we've had shortages of blood and blood products across the world because of people falling sick and not being able to make appointments. So we wanted to encourage people to donate, become regular donors; and donors break the stigma with regards to blood donations."
It was her first time donating blood on Saturday, and she says she is happy to have taken part.
"My motivation is potentially breaking a world record and saving three adult lives, and potentially seven children's lives. For me, that's motivating enough to try to push past the phobia. But for those that are worried about the injection itself or the donation itself, I would like to think that it's like a blood test that just goes on for a little bit longer."
There has been an increase in people signing up to donate blood since the end of July when a who had been to the UK between 1980 and 1996 - during an outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, commonly referred to as mad cow disease.
In the week after the ban lifted, 20,711 people made a booking to donate blood.
But every week, at least 30,000 blood donors are cancelling or rescheduling their appointments.
That has impacted the supply need to service the demand for more than 1.7 million donations every year.
Ronny Maroun, a spokesperson from Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, says the number of people donating blood needs to rise from its current level to meet that need.
"Blood donation is so important because 1 in 3 of us will need blood in our lifetime, yet only one in 30 people are currently donating blood. There's a requirement for us to achieve at least 33,000 donations each and every week."
He said the mass blood donation drive on Saturday is expected to really help meet the level of need.
"Events like this help us inspire the Australian community to get behind the worthy cause. It is a fantastic initiative."
He said some concerns need to be dispelled to encourage more people to become blood donors.
"A lot of the concerns generally are based around eligibility for blood donation. People feel as though there may not be eligible to give blood because of a recent tattoo or a piercing. In actual fact, these individuals are to give blood."
Ms Adil Ali said there are further myths that need to be busted that could be barriers for Muslim migrants.
"There are some cultural misconceptions that may deter people away from donating blood. But I think we have come a long way. With the blood donation drive that we had, there was so much excitement and no hesitation from the donors that we had.
"In the Islamic religion, there's a quote in the Qur'an that says: If you save one life, it is as if you have saved all of humanity. We are inspired to continuously do acts of kindness, and, hopefully, break misconceptions."
It will take at least a week to officially collate the numbers in Australia by the Red Cross Lifeblood service. A final result on the global record is expected to be known in a couple of weeks.
In December 2020, a record was documented in India of 34,723 people donating blood in eight hours. The by the Wonder Book of Records International.
