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Lucy Hill blood appeal: Queues at Thailand hospital
Posted On Jan 14 2016
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A British backpacker with a rare blood type has had a transfusion after a social media campaign for donors to come forward and save her life.
A negative is relatively rare in Thailand, where only one per cent of the population have the blood type.
Family and friends launched an appeal on Facebook for blood donors in the northern city of Chiang Mai and dozens of tourists and expats arrived yesterday.
Her father said it was “humbling” volunteers had been queuing two hours before the hospital opened.
She and a friend, University of Leeds student Lauren Hall, had planned to travel onto other parts of south east Asia and Australia after visiting Thailand.
“Luce’s is still in intensive care but has received the pressing blood transfusion she wanted”, he wrote.
A Facebook post asking people in Thailand to donate blood to an injured British traveller has been shared over 120,000 times.
Lucy’s family have been overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers who queued up at the Rajavej Chiang Mai Hospital to donate their blood from 6am on Monday morning. She was rushed to Rajavej Hospital in Chiang Mai, but the doctors were unable to give her a transfusion as they had no reserves of her blood type, A negative. “Social media can be so powerful”, she wrote.
Mr Hill continued: “She is likely to need more surgery to work on her eye socket”.
“But it’s really important that we get some more blood for her for the oncoming days to help her recover”.
Lauren Hall campaign to help Lucy began on Trip Advisor.
It started as an excursion to the mountains outside Chiang Mai for a group of 10 friends travelling through Thailand. He said: ‘We went to the hospital first thing to help.
She said: “We’ve had people flying up from south Thailand, we’ve had people coming straight from the train when they’ve heard”.
Ms Hill, a Leeds Beckett University graduate, has since received a transfusion and is in a “critical but stable” condition, her aunt told the BBC. “Praying for her and her family at this time”.
