Mr Letham (69), has clocked up an impressive 102 donations since he first gave blood as a 19-year-old student at Lincoln College in 1958.
A friend encouraged Mr Letham to first consider donating blood.
‘‘In those days everybody was doing it. My mate, a big lock forward, said ‘come on Shorty, were going to do it'.
‘‘Back then they took a blood sample first by nicking the lobe of your ear and blood would drip down all over your shirt.
‘‘My mate fainted when he gave his sample and never got round to donating any blood.''
Mr Letham was not so squeamish, and continued to give blood in Christchurch, as well as Wellington, and all around Otago as he moved with work, and over on the West Coast.
His blood type, A-, is relatively rare, being shared by only 6% of the population in New Zealand, and for a while in Dunedin he was called upon to donate blood every eight weeks.
‘‘I'd occasionally get rung up in the middle of the night by the hospital who would send a taxi round to bring me in to take off a pint if they were short of blood in an emergency operation. That happened a few times.''
Since moving to Alexandra in 2001, Mr Letham has continued to give blood on a regular basis, once every three months.
‘‘I would have given 100 donations a lot earlier, but when I was living on the West Coast I only gave blood four times a year. There was not much call for it over there.''
The New Zealand Blood Service's donor recruiter coordinator in Dunedin, Karen Taylor, said Mr Letham's achievement represented ‘‘a lifetime of dedication to blood donation.''
There were about 9000 active donors in Otago, but only a small percentage had topped 100 donations.
The blood service had recently initiated a donor reward for people who reached their 100th donation, presenting them with a limited edition print, Ms Taylor said.
Mr Letham was delighted to receive a print by artist Sally Tagg when he gave his most recent donation last month.
He encouraged others to consider becoming blood donors, saying you never knew when you might need the favour returned.
His wife, Jean, had required blood once and was a grateful recipient of it.
‘‘I'm really happy to continue to donate. There's no saying that I might not need to have some sometime too,'' Mr Letham said. - Jenny Collier.
