Hello. My name is Zoë. I’m 16 years old, and I’m in year 10! I’m 156 centimetres tall, and I’m average in appearance. I’m not very good at sports. But I’m really good with words. My friends tell me I’m a walking thesaurus! Quaint. Exuberant. Animosity. See?

The reason I started this blog is because Dr Smith told me it would be ‘a most excellent idea’. Dr Smith is really weird because he says things like ‘jolly good!’ and ‘that’s a most excellent idea’! But he’s really knowledgeable in his field of work (and he likes the Lord of the Rings).

Anyway! Dr Smith said that keeping a blog would help me immensely. It would help me understand my condition, and it would be beneficial to record my feelings and thoughts. He said that lots of other people did it too, and it was more than likely someone else would have a similar blog to mine.

So here I am, 161 words into my very first post! Oh! Do you want to know a secret? It’s really important that you don’t tell anyone. Okay. Ready?

I know what you’re thinking.

Okay. Not really.

BUT, I know that you probably won’t have any idea what haemophilia is. Am I right? (Of course I am). I grew up with this disease, so I know a reasonable amount about it.

Haemophilia is a recessive X-linked disease which hinders the blood’s ability to clot. There are three different types of this condition: haemophilia A, haemophilia B and haemophilia C.

I have haemophilia A, which is the most common type. People with haemophilia A have lowered levels (or completely absent from) a blood clotting factor called factor VIII. It’s the same for people with haemophilia B, but the clotting factor affected is factor XI.

Do you know what a sex-linked disease is, audience? Well, haemophilia is inherited on the lower half of the X chromosome. That means that males inherit only one gene for it. If that gene is defective (i.e. recessive) then he will have the disease! Girls receive two genes, so we won’t have the disease unless we get two recessive genes.

I inherited two recessive genes from my parents. And you guessed it! They both have haemophilia too! Take a look at my fancy punnet square:


My dad’s genotype (the types of genes present in an organism) is at the top, and my mum’s is down the left side. Can you see how they can only have haemophilic children because they both pass down their recessive gene? That’s how I inherited it!

I guess I’m unlucky because my family has a history of haemophilia. Have a look at my family tree. My great-grandparents (1 and 2) passed it down to my grandparents (3 and 4) who then passed it onto my mother (5). My father (6) also had the disease. And my brothers and I (I’m number 7 on the tree) also have the condition. It’s almost freaky how nearly all my relatives are affected!

You know what’s really weird though? That some people have sporadic (occurring for an unknown reason) cases of this disease!

You know, it’s really nice to have someone to talk to (even though you’re just an electronic interface). I don’t really have anyone to talk to at school. I think they’re afraid of me, or something. Everyone knows that I have haemophilia. It’s not contagious. I can’t spread it. But people still handle me like I’m a bomb that’s about to blow them all sky high. They’re all friendly enough, but they don’t like being near me. I can tell by their expressions – that half-smile, half-grimace that screams ‘I don’t want to talk to you but I will because I’m nice.’

Labels: causes, haemophilia, inheritance