Value for the patient
The focus of the 10th anniversary of World Blood Donor Day is on the value of blood donation to the patient. Donating blood not only saves lives. It also helps people to live longer with an improved quality of life.

Thalassemia
'Give the gift of life: donate blood' is the slogan of this year's campaign. Donated blood can be life saving, for instance for people with thalassemia. Frequent blood transfusions can ensure adequate oxygen capacity in these patients.

Toxic iron
Professor Adriana Ceci, based at the University Aldo Moro in Italy, is Scientific Coordinator of DEEP, an EU-funded research study. Blood transfusions are of vital importance to thalassemia patients, but also result in an accumulation of iron in the body.
A drug called deferiprone is prescribed to patients with thalassemia, to remove the excess iron. The DEEP project aims to determine the correct doses of deferiprone in children of different ages suffering from thalassemia.

Collaboration
"The proper use of deferiprone in children is a challenge because, like most drugs, it has only been tested on adults in clinical trials" says Professor Ceci: “The European collaboration allows us to share our expertise.”

Facts
Want to know what blood transfusions can do? Ten facts about blood transfusions.