After donating blood 584 times, the fear of needles seems to go away.

"It's addictive knowing a patient out there needs it," says Al Whitney.

Al has been donating blood since 1965. His new project is to donate blood in all 50 states.

"There's a shortage of donors. We've got to get people educated and that's what I'm trying to do here."

Thursday was Indiana's turn and that landed Al at the South Bend Medical Foundation to donate platelets. That works a little differently.

"We take his whole blood out. We separate it and we only keep his platelets and we return his red blood cells and plasma to him," explains Jeanna Pugh, Donor Recruiter. "It would take the whole blood donations of about 8-10 people to make one unit of plates that Al donated today."

"There's somebody out there that needs these platelets to survive...to take another breath...to live," Al says.