Haemophilia
What exactly IS haemophilia?
Haemophilia is when your body is missing a clotting factor. A clotting factor is an ingredient in your blood that helps stop bleeding. You need all 13 different factors to properly stop bleeding! When your body is missing just one of these factors it means that it can't stop you bleeding as quickly as it should do after you bump or cut yourself. Also, you might not see any blood when this happens, because the bleeding can sometimes happen inside your body where you can't see it straight away, although a lot of the time you can see a purple bruise. The two kinds of haemophilia that people can have are: 1. Haemophilia A 2. Haemophilia B. If you have haemophilia A, this means that your blood has less of a clotting factor called factor 8 (usually written as the Roman numeral, VIII) than normal. If you have haemophilia B, this means that your blood has less of a clotting factor called factor 9 (usually written as the Roman numeral IX) than normal. Haemophilia B sometime called Christmas Disease because the first patient was a Mr Christmas. However, unlike most diseases, you can't catch haemophilia A or B -- it is just something you are born with. You can have mild, moderate, or severe haemophilia and this will make a difference to how much you bleed and how you get treated.  
| Harry has haemophilia A. | Jake has haemophilia B. | |
