A 70-year-old Ocala man celebrated an impressive blood donor milestone this past week.
William “Tinker” Bowen Jr. passed the 125-gallon blood donation milestone at OneBlood Ocala Donor Center on Friday morning.
According to a press release from OneBlood, fewer than 50 Floridians have reached that donor milestone since blood banking began during the Second World War.
Bowen’s contributions have helped to save or sustain many hundreds of lives and families over the years.
As a young man, Bowen was impressed by his dad who would sometimes be called by the blood center in the middle of the night to donate for a patient. While he was a freshman at the University of Florida, Bowen donated for a family member in need of a blood transfusion for the first time and has been donating ever since. He moved up to donating platelets in the 1980s. He says he keeps giving because he feels satisfaction in helping others.
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