French ‘rare blood’ drive seeks to woo diverse donors

Paris: Two years ago Laetitia Defoi suffered serious health complications from a blood transfusion gone wrong. The 31-year-old Frenchwoman has sickle cell anaemia and her blood, though B+, contains genetic material that makes it rare complicating the regular transfusions she requires to be able to walk.

"My body rejected B+ blood because it didn’t exactly match my type," Defoi told AFP after nearly two years of difficulties posed by incompatible transfusions. A programme of events in France this week seeks to encourage blood donations from members of certain ethnic groups who possess rare blood groups and themselves may be more at risk of sickle cell. The rare types number as many as 250 but are found in just one in 250 people.