Identical twins Billy and Ian McCook share many things in common, not least the same blood group.
And the brothers have spent more than 50 years donating it to help save the lives of more than 4,000 sick babies, children and adults.
The heroic duo are two of the country’s top blood donors after rolling up their sleeves to give a staggering 503 pints between them.
At 71, the pair – who had to wait in a two-hour queue to give their first pints in 1969 – also believe they could be the only twins in Britain to have donated blood for more than half a century.
This includes red blood cells and platelets, with each clot-aiding platelet donation able to help as many as 12 sick babies and children, or three adults.
And the brothers, who give blood at least three or four times a year, have no intentions of stopping any time soon.
“I’ll carry on as long as I’m fit and able,” said Billy, from Elgin, who recently donated his 250th pint.
“I don’t think anything of it, I just do it.
“I started giving three times a year and then four times a year, and after my 100th pint I started going to Inverness to give platelets which go to premature babies and cancer patients to thicken the blood.
“There’s nothing to it. Once I’ve given my pint, I forget about it. It’s only when you start talking to other people you realise [the good it does].”
‘It gives you a boost’
The twins were just 19 when they first became donors after their late mother, Hetty McCook needed blood transfusions during several operations.
At that time there were no appointments, donors just turned up and often the brothers would have to wait in a queue of more than two hours before it was their turn.
They did this for many years, before appointments were introduced, not once deterred by the lengthy wait.
Billy, a retired senior caretaker, said: “It didn’t bother us. We got a good blether and a cuppa and chocolate biscuit at the end.”
Grandfather-of-eight Ian added: “You’d sit and move along the bench until you got to the end. There could be 40 to 50 people in the queue. Two hours was nothing [to wait].”
Ian, who lives in Aberdeen, admitted the first time they went their faces were “beetroot with fear” as they got closer to the end of the line.
But as he called on more Scots to give blood, he said: “There was nothing to it. We were panicking over nothing. The worst part was the cold hand of the nurse.
“And after 10 or 12 donations your body feels like it needs to get rid of some blood to make way for new blood. It gives you a boost.”
Ian, a former milkman, knows just how much it means for a loved one to receive blood after his wife Nancy, 68, needed a transfusion after she fell ill earlier this year.
Whole family of donors
He regularly donates at Aberdeen Blood Donor Centre, having started with his twin and older brother Jimmy, 82, at their local church in Elgin.
Both he and Billy reached 100 donations each – saving up to 600 people between them – before they switched to giving platelets, helping to save many hundreds more.
Grandfather Billy, who had planned to retire from donating blood when he hit 70, also travels 65 miles every 12 weeks to give blood in Aberdeen.
Billy’s wife, Aileen, 74, also joined in on the life-saving act, donating 49 pints before she was no longer able to after being diagnosed with cancer.
Jimmy’s daughter Lorna, 56, has also donated more than 70 pints.
Jennifer Wilson, head of donor marketing for the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, was unable to confirm if they were the only twin donors.
But she stressed: “It is very special and unusual that twins have donated blood for this long. It is certainly an amazing achievement for these brothers.
“As they have given platelets they have saved or improved the lives of many hundreds of patients in Scotland. The SNBTS is very grateful to them for this remarkable achievement.”
She said blood stocks were currently healthy in Scotland but due to high Covid-19 levels she urged anyone who was well to come forward and give blood to ensure stocks did not run low.
To register to give blood, visit www.scotblood.co.uk