The funeral for former NHL forward Peter Zezel will be held Friday in Mississauga, Ont.

Zezel, a Toronto native, passed away Tuesday following a 10-year struggle with hemolytic anemia, a rare blood disease.

He was 44.

Zezel's family has requested that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the James Birrell Fund at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

then I looked it up..

Hemolytic anemia is anemia due to hemolysis, the abnormal breakdown of red blood cells (RBCs) either in the blood vessels (intravascular hemolysis) or elsewhere in the body (extravascular). It has numerous possible causes, ranging from relatively harmless to life-threatening. The general classification of hemolytic anemia is either acquired or inherited. Treatment depends on the cause and nature of the breakdown.

In a healthy person, a red blood cell survives 90 to 120 days (on average) in the circulation, so about 1% of human red blood cells break down each day. The spleen (part of the reticulo-endothelial system) is the main organ which removes old and damaged RBCs from the circulation. In healthy individuals, the break down and removal of RBCs from the circulation is matched by the production of new RBCs in the bone marrow.

In conditions where the rate of RBC breakdown is increased, the body initially compensates by producing more RBCs; however, breakdown of RBCs can exceed the rate that the body can make RBCs, and so anemia can develop. Bilirubin, a breakdown product of hemoglobin, can accumulate in the blood causing jaundice, and be excreted in the urine causing the urine to become a dark brown colour.