GENEROUS Joe Froggatt has been donating blood for 50 years – giving an incredible 191 pints.

Now, the Honley man hopes to hit the 200 donations mark.

Joe, 69, feared he would not hit his target before National Blood Service rules required him to give up at 70.

However, thanks to a recent NBS rule change, Joe can now carry on giving the gift of life.

The new rules allow regular donors to continue giving for as long as they meet medical criteria.

Joe said: “I now hope to hit 200 some time next year.”

Joe began donating blood in 1959, during basic Royal Air Force training at Bridgnorth in Shropshire.

He said: “In the second week, the blood van arrived. We were offered the option of giving blood or doing ‘something else’.

“We didn’t know what the ‘something else’ was, so we played it safe and gave blood!”

Joe stayed in the RAF for five years as an electrician, based at Driffield in East Yorkshire and Finningley, near Doncaster.

He left to retrain as a social worker and moved to Bradford then, four years ago, relocated to Honley.

During the past 50 years, he has been a familiar face at Bradford blood donation centre.

He said: “It’s a question of getting into a routine and going when you get your reminder. I have just taken on board that there’s a need for a constant supply.

“People are well-received when they go to give blood. It’s a friendly atmosphere. It is so simple and straightforward.”

Joe has a relatively common blood type – B positive.

However, his wife Linda has a rarer group, A Rhesus negative.

She has also been a regular donor, giving 73 units until 1992, when she had to stop for medical reasons.

She also donated anti-bodies which are given to pregnant women with Rhesus blood types to prevent complications in childbirth.

She said: “Blood is always needed, the banks are always very short of supplies.”