Birmingham couple with sickle cell disease urge minority ethnic blood donors to come forward

ITV News Central's Hannah Kings reports...

A couple from Birmingham who both have sickle cell disease are backing urgent calls from the NHS for more blood donors from minority ethnic backgrounds to come forward.

Due to the condition, Rebecca Solomon-Henry and Karl Henry have their blood regularly replaced by donor blood, in a procedure known as a red cell exchange.

If someone is diagnosed with sickle cell disease, it means their haemoglobin is abnormal, which causes the red blood cells to become hard and sticky and look like a C-shaped farm tool called a “sickle".

When it forms that shape it loses its oxygen, and it prevents the cell from flowing to organs and bones, causing bone deterioration and organ failure.

Rebecca remembers how, as a child, the disease affected her education as she spent more time in hospital than at school.

"It affects your life in every aspect"

Describing the symptoms of sickle cell disease, Rebecca said: "It makes you anaemic, very tired and lethargic and then the pain can be sharp, stabbing, shooting.

"Sometimes it feels like a barbed wire being wrapped around you. It affects your life in every aspect."

When Karl was nine-years-old, he suffered from a stroke caused by the disease, which took him years to recover from.

The couple attend a blood donor centre regularly for blood transfusions, and between them they rely on approximately 200 donors every year.

Sickle cell disease is particularly common among people of African or Caribbean descent, yet only around two percent of blood donors across the UK are from that community.

Due to a blood subtype called Ro - which is more common among black people in the community - it is better that those with the disease receive blood that is ethnically-matched to reduce complications. 

Rebecca and Karl are backing the NHS’ #InOurBlood campaign, which is encouraging people of African or Caribbean heritage to donate blood.

They say an increase in black people becoming donors would change their lives, as they would be more likely to get a successful match.

The couple's daughter Janaya also has sickle cell disease, and Rebecca puts her determination to see more black donors from the community recruited down to wanting to help her daughter in the future.

She said: "It's a worry that my daughter will have to go through the same thing. That's the main reason I'm appealing to our black community to donate blood.

"I heard her say the other day 'I'm worried about my parents if they get the wrong blood something's going to happen to them and I'll lose them.

"So that's an extra special reason why it's important to have the right match."

Nadine Eaton from NHS Blood and Transplant has told ITV News that "16,600 new black donors" are needed to help those living with sickle cell disease to find better matches.

She said: "People with sickle cell need ethnically-matched blood to ensure they can have long-term treatment."

Anyone interested in finding out more about blood donation can access information here.

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