Question: I am amazed by blood and blood transfusions, do you think in the future we will be able to find cures for illnesses using blood; and if so what illnesses do you think we will be able to cure?

Catherine Wigley answered on 15 Nov 2016:

We have already progressed over the last few decades are able to treat and cure many more conditions, and I’m sure we will continue to see advances! Using human blood is a dangerous and difficult process, generally blood transfusions are used to support patients who have either lost too much blood or are unable to produce enough of their own. In order to cure illnesses relating to the blood such as leukaemia’s, sickle cell disease and thalassemia’s, bone marrow transplants are used to replace a patients poorly or incorrectly functioning bone marrow (the bone marrow produces all the blood cells) with bone marrow that functions normally thereby offering a cure.