INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — One Fortville household is working to lift consciousness of uncommon bleeding problems throughout Bleeding Disorders Awareness Month with the hope of getting consideration from lawmakers.

Kimber Blackwell and her daughter, 14-year-old Kate Blackwell, have Von Willebrand disease. It’s a bleeding dysfunction the place individuals are lacking or low within the clotting protein von Willebrand issue, or the protein doesn’t work because it ought to.

Von Willebrand illness is the commonest blood dysfunction within the U.S. Most of the three.2 million Americans who’ve it are born with it after having inherited it from one or each dad and mom, says the CDC.

But others, like Kimber Blackwell, don’t see the warnings indicators — together with frequent nosebleeds, irregular or straightforward bruising, and extreme bleeding of the gums — till later in life.

Blackwell is a doctor’s assistant on the Indiana Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center in Indianapolis. She says she labored with sufferers with uncommon bleeding problems for years earlier than she realized her signs matched Von Willebrand illness.

Blackwell says her daughter, Kate, was recognized when she was in kindergarten after a volleyball to the face and a nosebleed that wouldn’t cease.

To try to draw the eye of lawmakers to Von Willebrand illness and different bleeding problems, the mother-daughter duo lately took half in an occasion referred to as Washington Days, hosted by the National Hemophilia Foundation.

During Washington Days, the Blackwells and different Americans with inherited blood problems met just about with lawmakers to try to enhance funding for bleeding dysfunction analysis and enhance entry to care.

“I think it’s just important to share your story, especially when you have some medical condition that is not common,” Kimber Blackwell mentioned. “It really just gives a face and a personal story and a personal touch to lawmakers, to be able to see how having a bleeding disorder impacts everyday life.”

The Indiana Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center says greater than 60,000 individuals in Indiana reside with a uncommon bleeding dysfunction, akin to Von Willebrand illness or hemophilia, and the bulk are unaware. Learn extra and discover out the signs on the IHTC website.