World Blood Donor Day Starts Here: Theo’s Miracle, Katherine’s Mission [Podcast]

The life-threatening diagnosis that changed everything

In this deeply moving episode of UrbanEbb, host Rico Figliolini sits down with Katherine Lafourcade, Executive Director of the French-American Chamber of Commerce Atlanta, to talk about life, leadership, and the power of giving back. Katherine shares her unexpected journey from Europe to Georgia, her role in connecting French businesses to Atlanta’s thriving innovation scene, and a powerful personal story of her son Theo’s battle with leukemia that inspired her mission to promote blood donation.

With candor, insight, and heart, this conversation reminds us of the value of community—and how even a small act, like donating blood, can change lives.

Resources:

• French-American Chamber of Commerce – Atlanta: https://www.facc-atlanta.com
• Blood Drive Registration (June 14, 2025): https://www.facc-atlanta.com/events/upcoming-events/e/event/blood-drive-june.html
• American Red Cross: https://www.redcrossblood.org

Takeaways:

• Why the French-American Chamber of Commerce relocated to Curiosity Lab in Peachtree Corners
• How Katherine transitioned from a global business background to nonprofit leadership
• The life-threatening diagnosis that changed everything for her family
• How her son Theo’s recovery from leukemia—and over 50 blood transfusions—inspired her to launch a community blood drive initiative
• Why World Blood Donor Day (June 14, 2025) is a meaningful opportunity for new and returning donors
• What it takes to host a Red Cross blood drive—and how you can help
• How giving blood could save up to three lives in under 15 minutes

Timestamp:

00:01:42 – Why the French-American Chamber relocated to Peachtree Corners
00:02:14 – Katherine’s transatlantic journey from England to France, Switzerland, and Georgia
00:06:02 – The chamber’s mission: helping French businesses land and grow in the U.S.
00:07:38 – Why French, British, and Irish nationals were banned from donating blood until 2023
00:10:01 – Katherine shares her son Theo’s leukemia diagnosis and critical care experience
00:13:03 – The severity of Theo’s condition and the ECMO machine that saved his life
00:16:00 – The frustration of being unable to donate blood as a parent
00:20:19 – The family’s move to the U.S. and continued treatment during COVID
00:21:44 – Theo’s dream of becoming a pediatric oncologist
00:22:21 – Launching local blood drives and how to get involved
00:24:09 – What it’s really like to donate blood: time, process, and tracking where it goes
00:28:05 – Tracking donations via the Red Cross app and building a culture of giving
00:29:19 – Where to sign up and what to expect on June 14, 2025

Podcast Transcript

00:00:00 – Rico Figliolini

Hi, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of UrbanEbb, a podcast that we do here north of Atlanta, smart city of Peachtree Corners. And we are in Curiosity Lab with a special guest today, Katherine Lafourcade, who’s the executive director of the French-American Chamber of Commerce here in Peachtree Corners. Welcome.

00:00:18 – Katherine Lafourcade

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

00:00:21 – Rico Figliolini

No, I appreciate it. This is going to be a great conversation, I’m sure. But before we get into that, I just want to say thank you to our two sponsors, both here located in Peachtree Corners also. Vox Pop Uli is one. Do you have a brand? Do you have a business? Do you have an organization? Do you need that brand to add on something? Whether it’s clothing or vehicle wrap, and you go to a trade show, or you want your logo on that unusual object that you came up with? They can do it. They can almost do anything. So check them out at Vox Pop Uli. Also, EV Remodeling, Inc. Eli is the owner. They’re based here in Peachtree Corners. Eli lives here with his family as well. They have done, I think, over 258 home renovations from design to build, your bathroom, your kitchen. You need an extension on the house. You need to close in your deck. They could do anything. So check them out at evremodelinginc.com. And both of those sponsors are great sponsors. We appreciate them supporting these podcasts and the magazines and the journalism that we do. So thanks there. Now let’s get into the conversation because Katherine has a great story and a challenging story to a degree, right? But let’s start with first that you’re the executive director for the French American Chamber of Commerce, newly located to Peachtree Corners, right?

00:01:42 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yeah, I mean, actually since 2021. So going back a little bit, but before that it was in Buckhead in the consulate building. And there was a decision to bring us out to Peachtree Corners to be located in the heart of Curiosity Lab, which I think was an amazing decision. It makes a lot of sense for us to be here.

00:01:48 – Rico Figliolini

Sure. There’s so many, I mean, we get countries that are coming from Ukraine to visit this place, Israel and startups from all over the world.

00:02:05 – Katherine Lafourcade

There’s a lot of international partnerships, so it made a lot of sense for the Chamber to be here. 

00:02:05 – Rico Figliolini

So how did you get to the Chamber? What brought you there? What brought you here?

00:02:14 – Katherine Lafourcade

So yeah, despite my very British accent, it’s one of the first questions always, but French American, you don’t sound either. The truth is I’m not either, but I have strong links to France. I started learning French as a school kid in England and we all had to learn French, French and German. And I particularly, something about the French language just clicked with me and I was like, this is it. I need to learn French. I wanted to become bilingual. I knew my life was going to be, there was going to be involvement with French on some level. And so I did a bachelor’s degree in England, international business in French. I got to do a year in Paris as an intern, which just confirmed everything. I think I already knew that I definitely wanted to do something with French in my life. And so after graduation, I moved to France, worked a bit in France, and then France became Switzerland. And then we relocated to the US six years ago now. Yeah, yeah. And then I arrived in this role, kind of in a roundabout way. When we moved here, my husband is French and we decided we wanted to connect with the French community in and around Atlanta. And we thought maybe the chamber was a good place to start. And so we joined as members. And then the end of 2021, the past executive director was leaving. And so there was an opening and had a lot of fingers pointed at me. A lot of people saying, this is a job for you. To which my response was a little bit, I don’t know. I’m not entirely sure of what Chambers of Commerce do. It’s a nonprofit organization as well. So there were a lot of questions I had, but I decided to give it a go. And so since January of 2022, I’ve been the leadership role. Thoroughly enjoy it.

00:03:57 – Rico Figliolini

Good. Well, you know, coming from Europe, I mean, I think any American that would look at that and say, oh, you know, in Europe, you’ve got like all those countries, you could go all over the place and not be hindered, really, except for maybe from Britain to Europe.

00:04:12 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yeah, a little bit different since Brexit, unfortunately, yes. But anyway, yes.

00:04:16 – Rico Figliolini

But, you know, very different culture too, very different way of looking at life. How does it feel being here in the States?

00:04:24 – Katherine Lafourcade

This is my first experience of living in the US. So I had no prior experience in anywhere else. We came to Atlanta. This is my benchmark. I didn’t know what to expect, to be perfectly honest. I wasn’t familiar with Georgia, wasn’t familiar with anything to what we were getting into and the proof is six years on we absolutely love it here. There’s something about the people, there’s something just about the the environment here. There’s such a vibrant international community. There’s a, I don’t know there’s just a very welcoming feeling. And we really are surprised I think on some level I think we don’t mind saying that. I think we’ve really felt like this is a new home for us. We came here with kids as well and they’re also doing well. But yeah I think people are a bit like but why would you have moved here from from Switzerland which is actually where we were and the answer is there’s a big wide world out there and sometimes it’s good to see something different and you don’t know until you’ve tried it so.

00:05:24 – Rico Figliolini

And I’m thinking she came to the south, which is good because this is like America light in a way. Because if you went to the northeast where I came from, Brooklyn, New York, or up in New York, you might have a different feel for it.

00:05:37 – Katherine Lafourcade

I think so. Southern hospitality does seem like it’s a thing. I mean, I don’t know. There’s good and bad everywhere. That’s the bottom line. You can choose the bits you want to see, and there’s always going to be things that are less good. But honestly, yeah, you’ve got to make the best of where you’re living, and that’s the way we see it.

00:05:53 – Rico Figliolini

For sure. So you’ve been here six years, working in the chamber and stuff. Do you find working businesses locally? You’re trying to bring business from France to the states.

00:06:02 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yeah, yeah. That’s part of the mission. So we kind of have a twofold mission. It is to bring French companies over. If they’re thinking about starting up business in Georgia, we are very much there to help them with that. We have a wonderful network of members, have all sorts of skills, all sorts of different sectors of activity. So, you know, if somebody just rolls up and says, I want to start my business here. We can help them with every aspect, legally, financially, recruiting, all of those things. So it’s a nice soft landing. We’ve got a lot of people that speak French. That will also help them because most of them might speak English, but sometimes it’s nice to speak your mother tongue language. And then the second fold is those who are already here to help them develop. So they might have already started their activity, but they do want to expand. They want to get a better network. They want to connect with people, partners, collaborators.

00:06:49 – Rico Figliolini

What type of businesses are you seeing wanting to come here?

00:06:52 – Katherine Lafourcade

It’s a bit of everything. It’s not, we don’t have one sector that really dominates. I mean, we have a lot of businesses, we have some manufacturing, all sorts of sectors. I mean, it’s good and it’s difficult because then we can’t say, well, you know, we’re particularly good at this one thing. So we’re kind of a bit of everything. So everyone has a space really.

00:07:15 – Rico Figliolini

So, dealing with businesses but you’re also dealing with the community and outreach and stuff. So you started, I believe a blood drive some time ago. And part of it came out of, I guess during COVID the banning of, we were talking about this before, of blood from any French, UK or Irish person. Tell us a little bit about that because I didn’t even realize that.

00:07:38 – Katherine Lafourcade

And that wasn’t even just because of COVID. That was a blanket exclusion that was in place for many, many years. So anybody that had lived in France, the UK or Ireland during, I think it was the late 90s at the time of what was called the mad cow epidemic. It was an unfortunate time where cattle got sick and there was some question over the fact that it could go into people as well. So by default, people who had been in those countries were not allowed to give blood. So I was excluded in Switzerland. I wasn’t allowed to give blood there. And then arriving in the US, same exclusion. It was not possible just by default to give blood. And those rules changed in 2023. I think they decided maybe there’s a lack of donors, always. And so maybe opening up to another category, they still screen the blood. I mean, there’s no safety issues, but it’s just making it less strict. And the epidemic was over 30 years ago at this point. Anything that was going to happen would have happened, I think, in that time frame. 

00:08:39 – Rico Figliolini

I think so. I remember the craze about that. It’s all about, oh, my God, if you eat the wrong meat, you can catch, you know, mad cow disease.

00:08:46 – Katherine Lafourcade

I don’t know how many people actually ever got infected. I don’t know. I mean, personally, it was something that happened, and then it kind of was no longer a thing. But, you know, for whatever reasons, out of an abundance of precaution, they wanted to keep it under control.

00:09:01 – Rico Figliolini

And most people, I don’t think, know that blood isn’t, when blood’s donated, it’s sort of remanufactured into other, I mean, there’s multiple blood donations within even one pack.

00:09:12 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yes, absolutely. So there’s whole blood, which is, you know, just giving the whole blood, you can donate plasma, you can donate platelets as well. Different blood groups are in more or less demand because there’s a universal donor. So if you’re a group O negative, that’s the golden, that’s everyone wants that blood because everyone can receive that blood. They want all the blood groups, obviously. But there’s always a lack of donors, always, because people don’t think about donating. It’s not something that’s in your everyday life, unless you’ve had a personal reason to get involved. Quite often it’s something that, you know, you might know someone who does it, but it’s never necessarily number one on your to-do list.

00:09:56 – Rico Figliolini

So let’s go there for a minute.

00:09:58 – Katherine Lafourcade

So yeah, that’s.

00:09:59 – Rico Figliolini

You had a real personal reason.

00:10:01 – Katherine Lafourcade

I did. Absolutely. So after, so even before we moved to the US, my son at the age of 12 and a half got very, very sick. He was diagnosed with leukemia and it came out of the blue. We were in Switzerland at the time. He was a healthy, happy kid. Nothing predisposed this happening. You know, there were no forewarnings. It just was a shock out of the blue. Leukemia starts in the bone marrow. It’s a white blood cell that mutates and becomes cancerous. And that’s kind of it. It then snowballs into a pretty devastating diagnosis. Leukemia is not like a lot of other cancers. There’s no tumor. You can’t have radiotherapy. It’s in the bloodstream, so it’s everywhere. And it’s treated with a very, very, very large number of chemotherapy doses intravenously. So within the first year alone, he had over 100 intravenous injections of chemotherapy.So some days some weeks it was four days out of five at the hospital. Sometimes he was in overnight we had to pre-hydrate and post-hydrate because of toxicity. He had a chest port because they can’t go in regular veins. Yeah it’s too toxic, so you had a chest port that stays in place. I mean it’s brutal. It’s very, very devastating you know you imagine a child a 12 year old not understanding why this is happening, all the horrific side effects from the chemo you know hair loss, nausea. It’s just shocking. He missed a lot of school a lot of time in hospital. And so we plowed through all of that and normally at the end of nine months of treatment we’d get to a different phase of the the protocol which would have been slightly easier, a bit less chemo, a bit less time in hospital called the maintenance phase. And very unfortunately for poor Theo when we were ending the intensive phase and getting towards this part that should be better, everything took a turn for the worse. We didn’t know why again, there was a lot of confusion, a lot of unknown. He had contracted an intestinal parasite.

00:12:00 – Rico Figliolini

At the hospital?

00:12:01 – Katherine Lafourcade

At home or at the hospital, we don’t know where. I mean we weren’t going anywhere or doing anything, so it’s very improbable that would even happen but his immune system which was pretty much non-existent at that point. This thing had obviously got in there and any normal person you’d get rid of it, but his body wasn’t able to do that and it set up a horrible situation. He was losing weight almost by the day. When they found this parasite, they treated it, couldn’t get rid of it, and things just kept going downhill. And we ended up with an absolutely critical situation just before Christmas 2017. It was an emergency situation. Everything was crashing. It turned into septicemia, so septic shock, an infection everywhere in his body, which can kill in a matter of hours so it was a case of emergency surgery. They had to operate on him in his hospital bed, they didn’t even have time to get him to the operating block. And they put him on a machine called ecmo, which was actually used during COVID. COVID patients.

00:13:03 – Rico Figliolini

Was that the ventilation?

00:13:04 – Katherine Lafourcade

So kind of. It’s not actually ventilation it does the job of the heart and lungs outside of the body.

00:13:10 – Rico Figliolini

Yes, that’s right. I think it was misnamed ventilation when it really wasn’t.

00:13:15 – Katherine Lafourcade

And his lungs were what got completely infected. So there was no oxygen exchange between his blood and the lungs that were just not functioning. So they had to put him on this machine which in itself is brutal surgery. It’s open heart surgery. And it’s two big tubes that are fixed onto the body that come out. The machine’s on the floor next to the bed. It takes out the carbon dioxide. It puts back in the oxygen. And he was on dialysis because his kidneys weren’t doing well as well. He was on a ventilator to breathe.

00:13:42 – Rico Figliolini

He was 12 years old at the time?

00:13:44 – Katherine Lafourcade

He was, yes, 12, 13. Sorry, he had turned 13. Yeah.

00:13:46 – Rico Figliolini

How was he?

00:13:50 – Katherine Lafourcade

He was in an artificially induced coma at that point because he just needed to be on life support. He was totally unaware of what was going on. We were watching him, we had no concept of what was happening. It was so beyond the realms of anything you’ve ever seen or take a moment because it was a lot. It was very, very, very difficult.

00:14:11 – Rico Figliolini

And he has siblings too right?

00:14:13 – Katherine Lafourcade

He has an older sister, yeah and she…

00:14:15 – Rico Figliolini

How’d she take that?

00:14:17 – Katherine Lafourcade

She just watched him like we did, you know, in a coma with his body attached to tubes and, you know, with the machine breathing for him. And it was just a case of hoping. And sometimes it was minute by minute. It was very much, you know, there is nothing but what’s happening right now. You know, and you look at the doctors, a bit like the movies, and you just say to them, do everything you can. But you can see that they’re not sure. You know, there was…

00:14:41 – Rico Figliolini

Which, do you mind me asking which hospital this was?

00:14:44 – Katherine Lafourcade

It was in Lausanne. It was near to the, it was the hospital, the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lausanne, which is the hospital, the University Hospital of Lausanne. Luckily, they’re super well equipped. They have staff that are amazing. And without a shadow of a doubt, those people saved his life. He’s still in contact with some of them. I’m still in contact with some of them. Yes. I mean, there’s a bond there that goes beyond sort of parent, sorry the patient caregiver.

00:15:05 – Rico Figliolini

It’s almost like savior or something.

00:15:12 – Katherine Lafourcade

Oh yeah. I mean, I clearly and we’re still in contact because, so I mean his story was, I mean it’s difficult to do it chronologically. But he was in a very, very bad space. He received a ton of blood transfusions. That surgery in itself he hemorrhaged. There were times when he was on the machine, the machine kind of, it keeps you alive but it also destroys the blood. Blood doesn’t like going into anything sort of machine based. So he was, one time he was lacking so much in volume that they pressed the panic switch. The alarms were blaring and everybody rushed in and they were, they got syringes of blood that were this fat and they were pushing it into his system to try and get the volume of his blood up. I’ve never seen anything like it. I mean, it really felt like it was an out of body experience.

00:15:58 – Rico Figliolini

Well, you were learning also quite a bit.

00:16:00 – Katherine Lafourcade

Learning a lot about what happens behind the scenes, you know, most people never get, and I’m glad most people will never see that. But honestly, the perspective, I was just, I was sad at that point because all I wanted to do was give blood, not to my son directly, but my husband and I, we thought, let’s do something to help someone else who might be in this situation. And we couldn’t. So it felt, it felt rough. You’re already helpless. Then the one thing you think that you might be able to do, you can’t just because of these rules that are in place. So it was frustrating. He, by some miracle or other, came through. We stopped treating the leukemia. I mean, we were just kind of getting him through the infection.

00:16:36 – Rico Figliolini

How old was he at that point?

00:16:38 – Katherine Lafourcade

So he was in the coma for, I think, just over a month. He missed Christmas, New Year, woke up in January the next year, had a tracheotomy at that point, so he didn’t have a voice, woke up not knowing what had happened during this whole blacked out period. So I’d taken photos which was weird but then it was actually good to be able to show him what he’d been through. You know that whole blank space. For me also I think I needed to somehow document what was going on, make sense of it. And then he had to start with physical therapy because he was just a skinny body. The muscle wastage is crazy, in a matter of weeks he was just a tiny little frail thing and he could just sit up. And then he had to learn how to stand up again and then he had to learn how to walk again and get some muscle strength and very, very long process, but he came through it. And again, it was down to his willpower because as a parent, the one thing you want to do is take all of that. Even the cancer, I said to him, you know, I want to do, I would do this for you. There’s not a part of me that doesn’t want to swap places right now, but I can’t. Unfortunately, you’ve got to do this and we’re a team and I will help you in any way I can, but the strength has got to come from inside of you. So he’s, he’s.

00:17:48 – Rico Figliolini

So you were there quite a bit of time.

00:17:50 – Katherine Lafourcade

I didn’t leave the hospital for lots and lots of months. I slept upstairs in a consultation room because I just couldn’t bear to not be there. And when they’re in the ICU, there’s no space for a parent to have a bed there. It’s not made for that. So I would just go upstairs, my little suitcase and come back. I used to read to him when he was in the coma, just read because I didn’t know what to do. And apparently people can hear you when they’re in a coma. So I don’t know. Sometimes his blood rate, his heart rate would go up a little bit. And when I would read, it would go back down. And the nurses said, it’s because your voice is calming. He’s heard it from before he was born. And I was like, I don’t know, but I’m going to go with that because I felt like I was doing something, you know, and at that time that was all I could do, so.

00:18:31 – Rico Figliolini

Did you, you had people supporting you too?

00:18:33 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yes, I was, yeah. I mean, I didn’t, my family came over from England because all my family was in England, but. We had friends, we had people in the community that helped. And the staff at the hospital are also, you know, they’re the angels because they do this for a living. And I was lucky my employer, even at the time I didn’t lose my employment, they were just more concerned about me and my son. So, and, you know, it just, my husband and I, it just really sort of soldered us together and in an even tighter bond to have to go through something as quite as crazy as that.

00:19:03 – Rico Figliolini

And I would imagine European healthcare is a little different.

00:19:06 – Katherine Lafourcade

It is different, yes. And I think had it have happened here, I’m not quite sure the costs that would have been involved because this healthcare system is quite different. Switzerland’s also private, but a lot of it was taken care of. There were some financial burdens, but there are also charities that try and help with that kind of thing because it’s a lot for families to have to go through.

00:19:24 – Rico Figliolini

So once he came out of the coma, once he came into remission. He’s been in remission for five years?

00:19:29 – Katherine Lafourcade

He’s been in remission for five years, yeah.

00:19:31 – Rico Figliolini

That’s a key mark.

00:19:32 – Katherine Lafourcade

It is. Absolutely. So after he came out of the coma, that was when we were entertaining the coming to the US and we had to make sure that was all going to be okay that the treatment, because the treatment was going to continue. So we did. We went through all the stages. Were the doctors okay with us moving here? The answer was yes. Did the insurance cover the move here? The answer was yes. So then we had the, do we do it or do we not do it? And when we asked both children. Theo was absolutely, yes, I want to go there right now. He needed to kind of turn the page. And I think the move here was so great for all of us, actually. And we didn’t know at the time. It was kind of a leap of faith because we didn’t know what we were getting into. It was a big change at quite a critical time. But we decided to make it happen. And he was still having treatments that when we got here, still having chemotherapy.

00:20:19 – Rico Figliolini

Do you, which, if you don’t mind me asking again, which hospital are you doing?

00:20:22 – Katherine Lafourcade

So it was the Children’s Right. Yeah. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Scottish Right Hospital. Amazing.

00:20:30 – Rico Figliolini

You felt really good with them too?

00:20:32 – Katherine Lafourcade

They were phenomenal. They’d read his file that was not a normal file and they knew things that were so, such detail. I was like, these people have read everything. So I trusted them blindly. There were no complications in the last part of his treatment. He did, he was still having treatment though when COVID hit. So that was scary.

00:20:53 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah, I would imagine infection or something like that.

00:20:54 – Katherine Lafourcade

Exactly. Lungs, I was just, I had visions of the ECMO and the coma and I was like, I just, I don’t know if I can, I don’t know if I can cope going back there. He had the vaccine very early. He caught COVID, but a long time afterwards and it was fine. And so in May of 2020, you were referring to the milestone. So he finished his treatment, May 2020. Had lots of checkups. It’s not something you just finish and you’re good. They still want to make sure that you’re okay. And they get less and less frequent. And then May of 2025, so next month, the biggest milestone yet, five years. Five years after the last chemo, five years of remission, still doing well. Now at college. So he did his high school. He arrived here as a freshman at high school. He did his four years. And now he’s a freshman at college at UGA.

00:21:42 – Rico Figliolini

What does he want to be?

00:21:44 – Katherine Lafourcade

He wants to be a pediatric oncologist.

00:21:47 – Rico Figliolini

Inspiration from the weirdest places.

00:21:49 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yes, yeah. I mean, clearly it changed him fundamentally. It changed all of us. I mean, there’s no way that life is the same.

00:21:56 – Rico Figliolini

I can’t even imagine that. I can’t imagine a child. I mean, I have three kids. I cannot imagine what you went through.

00:22:03 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yeah, it was a lot. And it’s still just under the surface, even if it’s five years. And the diagnosis was even before that. But some of it is just so, yeah, it will never not be an emotional subject. And that’s why I want to do things to give back, things to help. And that’s where we get back into the blood drive.

00:22:21 – Rico Figliolini

That’s right. So you started wanting to do that through the chamber.

00:22:25 – Katherine Lafourcade

Exactly. 2023, we realize we can give blood. My husband and I are like, this is amazing. We have wanted to do this since 2017. We finally can. We both give blood. And then I’m like, you know what? I think that most people in the French, also British and Irish, I’m working for the French chamber. I am convinced that most people don’t know the rules have changed. There will be people that have given blood in France or given blood in various parts of their lives, but feel that, well, have been told that they can’t. This is huge. We need to get the message out.

00:22:55 – Rico Figliolini

So that’s what you’re doing.

00:22:56 – Katherine Lafourcade

So I’m like, now I can use my professional role as the executive director of the chamber. I can talk to the French population of Atlanta with the consulate, the consul general of France, with all the other French entities and just get the word out there. You guys can give blood. I think blood donating also dipped during COVID. Obviously it was a very strange world. And I think maybe people that used to give haven’t got back into it. I have seen firsthand blood donating saves lives. My son would not be here today without people, strangers that gave their blood that he got. Now I can’t find them personally, a lot of blood. I mean, I think he had over 50 transfusions. And I’m throwing that number out there a little bit randomly because I can’t remember, but a lot of transfusions. So for me personally, this is huge. And I just want to inspire people to think about it. Think if you’ve never given, give it a go. If you have given and it’s been a long time, revisit it. One blood donation can save up to three lives, which is, you know.

00:24:00 – Rico Figliolini

So tell people, because some people that don’t know what it takes to donate blood. How long does it take? How much are they donating?

00:24:09 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yeah, it’s really not hard. So the blood drives that we do here at the Curiosity Lab, they’re run by the Red Cross, the American Red Cross. So I offered myself up as a blood leader. So I put together the place, the location, we figure out all the logistics and I invite everyone. And then the blood cross come with all of their staff, with the beds, all the material they set up here. I just basically get as many appointments as I can because we have a goal of units that we want to collect during the drive. The regular blood donating is pretty quick. Funny things, it depends on how quickly it drips out. Some people it’s super fast. Some people it’s a bit slower. It’s going to be like 10, 15 minutes around that. Nothing more. It’s not long, no. And it’s no worse than just having the needle stick that you have when you go to the doctor once a year. Realistically, I know the needle stays in there, but it’s the. It’s not worse. You know, you’re just sitting there and then afterwards you get snacks, you get drinks, you get, we get, we have a company that sponsor Werfen give us donuts to eat afterwards. So, and it’s a real sense of community. And I know a lot of people don’t like needles. A lot of people, it’s like a horrible idea to have this thing in your arm and see blood. I would advise just don’t look. I used to hate blood, but honestly, after I went, what I went through with my son. You kind of just get hardened to it. And you know what you think to yourself? I don’t like this, but what if I’m saving someone’s life?

00:25:35 – Rico Figliolini

For sure.

00:25:36 – Katherine Lafourcade

What if it was my child? What if it was my parent? What if it was someone in my family? Wouldn’t I just hope that other people have gone beyond to give it the best shot they can to donate? So this is, you know.

00:25:49 – Rico Figliolini

So for those, I’m bad about it. I mean, I’m just, I can faint after a needle unfortunately. They have to put a butterfly needle, I think it’s called and maybe because it’s just smaller and easier. But you’ve just gotta fast the night before, this is the normal thing the blood test that you have at your normal physical but otherwise you don’t have to fast.

00:26:09 – Katherine Lafourcade

No, no fasting at all. No you need to eat well, drink well. There’s lots of advice that they will give you beforehand to set yourself up for success.

00:26:16 – Rico Figliolini

For the ones that don’t want to roll up their sleeves and donate blood, what can they do?

00:26:21 – Katherine Lafourcade

They can spread the word. They can talk to their colleagues, their family, their neighbors, their communities, their clubs, whatever it is. Spreading the word is the hardest thing. We don’t have big means to go publicly telling everybody about this blood drive, but it’s going to be on World Blood Donor Day, the next one, June 14th, exactly. It’s a Saturday, 11:30 to 4:30. You can book your slot.

00:26:46 – Rico Figliolini

It’s going to be here?

00:26:47 – Katherine Lafourcade

It’s going to be here, in this room, yeah. You can book your appointment. They will take walk-ins, but if you want to be taken at a specific time, better to take that appointment option because then you’ll have more of a chance of knowing when you’re going to be taken. If you don’t know your blood group, you’ll find out.

00:27:01 – Rico Figliolini

Will they tell you on the spot?

00:27:02 – Katherine Lafourcade

Not on the spot. Afterwards, they will tell you what blood group you are, which could be useful.

00:27:06 – Rico Figliolini

It’s kind of funny because most people might not know that. Because when you do your blood test at the hospitals, they don’t do that. Unless you ask them specifically to test for it.

00:27:10 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yeah, exactly. A lot of people won’t ever know their blood group. They will also do screening for pre-diabetes at the moment for free. So that’s also an additional thing, which is kind of cool. You know, you can figure out if you’re maybe heading towards something a bit less healthy and you can maybe take, you know the steps to correct it.And they have an app, you will know which hospital your blood was used at. Yes, they track it and you get a little alert and then you get a little heart. And I have a map where all the, and I, so I tend to give platelets but that’s a, we’re not going to get into. That it’s a bit more, it’s longer, a bit more complicated but similar process. My platelets have gone to Savannah. They’ve gone down to Mobile, Alabama, to Birmingham, to all kinds of places. And you can track that on a map.

00:28:05 – Rico Figliolini

It’s almost like you’re gamifying the whole thing.

00:28:07 – Katherine Lafourcade

Well, I mean, a little bit, but isn’t it nice to know that someone in that hospital has received something that I gave? You know, that’s the whole point. It makes it more real.

00:28:16 – Rico Figliolini

Yes, it does.

00:28:16 – Katherine Lafourcade

I know where it’s gone. Yeah. Exactly. It’s just gone into the ether and you don’t know. Whereas I think to have that follow up and then there’s points and they’ve kind of really, sometimes they give you t-shirts. I should have been wearing a t-shirt today. I didn’t think about it. I went with the French shirt, the French logo. But no, there’s little giveaways and it’s just about community. And it’s about, you know, what you can do on a very personal, small level to help somebody that’s in need. Because if you’re getting a blood transfusion. There’s something not great. Surgery, childbirth, accidents, cancer patients. You know, there’s a whole host of people that need blood. And honestly, if they need blood, they’re not in a great way. So we all rely on other people, strangers, to help in that scenario.

00:29:01 – Rico Figliolini

And there’s not enough blood out there.

00:29:02 – Katherine Lafourcade

Never enough. No, there’s always a shortage. Bad weather can affect it. You know, environments, holidays, all sorts of things can really affect the supply. And they need a, you know, a flow of donors and people to give regularly.

00:29:17 – Rico Figliolini

So where can they go to?

00:29:19 – Katherine Lafourcade

They can basically, I’m trying to think the easiest way would be to look on the events page of our website.

00:29:25 – Rico Figliolini

Of the chamber website?

00:29:27 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yes. So our website is FACC. So French American Chamber of Commerce. The letters FACC-Atlanta.com. And then there’s an events section. And in that event section, there is a link to the blood drive.

00:29:41 – Rico Figliolini

Excellent. And we’ll have the link in the podcast notes as well. So they should do it as soon as possible.

00:29:47 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yes. Yes. Enrollment is from now. I’m just going to be pushing it out. And, you know, yeah, just spread the word. That’s my ask.

00:29:53 – Rico Figliolini

And I almost don’t want to say this, but there’s also another date a little further away.

00:29:57 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yes, in September.

00:29:58 – Rico Figliolini

In September. So if you’re on vacation. You could do the September date.

00:29:59 – Katherine Lafourcade

We’re doing three this year. We set the target of three drives this year. We might do it quarterly next year. But yeah, that’s the aim is just to keep spreading the word.

00:30:09 – Rico Figliolini

Right. And it’s going to be done here at Curiosity Lab. And the 14th is what? What day is it?

00:30:15 – Katherine Lafourcade

Saturday.

00:30:15 – Rico Figliolini

It’s Saturday. There’s no excuse.

00:30:15 – Katherine Lafourcade

Exactly. Yes.

00:30:18 – Rico Figliolini

Okay. Eat your fill. Eat a good breakfast. Come on down and give some blood.

00:30:22 – Katherine Lafourcade

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Make a difference.

00:30:24 – Rico Figliolini

Yes, for sure. So we’ve been here talking with Katherine Lafourcade, if I’m pronouncing that. Thanks. My last name’s Figliolini, and I mess that up sometimes. But I appreciate you spending time with me and talking about your son, Theo, and the experience that you went through.

00:30:41 – Katherine Lafourcade

You’re welcome.

00:30:41 – Rico Figliolini

Thank you, guys.

00:30:42 – Katherine Lafourcade

Thanks for having me.

00:30:43 – Rico Figliolini

No, no. Thanks, Katherine. Thank you, everyone.