SAVE A LIFE IN BRIXTON
Britain’s third largest blood donation centre was opened in the heart of Brixton in January.
The major investment by the NHS Blood and Transplant service is designed to help tackle sickle cell disease which overwhelmingly affects Black Caribbean and African people in Britain.
There is a major shortfall in the availability of suitable blood for life-saving transfusions.
Donors from Black Caribbean and Black African heritage are much more likely to have the “Ro” blood type used to treat the condition.
Marsha, one of the staff at the centre suffers from sickle cell herself. She told the opening ceremony: “I’m a sickle cell warrior and this is where I work.”
She said she needed transfusions “Just in order for me to stand here on a monthly basis to do my job, to smile with my friends and to give this message to everybody.
“It is important that we get as many people through those doors, especially Black donors because that’s is the closest match to our blood type. Without it I wouldn’t be here. And when we had the shortage in the blood bank last year, it affected me so much.”
Baroness Gillian Merron, minister for patient safety, told the ceremony: ”If I may quote you, Marsha: ‘Without the blood, I wouldn’t be here’. It’s that life or death. And we need to remember that. Marsha and others with sickle cell do rely on regular lifesaving blood transfusions from an average of 100 people a year.
“Currently we’ve only got enough donors who have the ‘Ro’ subtype – which is the best type – to supply hospitals with just 50% of the blood they need.
“So you’ve got the idea of the scale of the challenge. The rest is substituted. It is completely clinically safe. But the truth is, for patients, it is much better for long-term results if they can be treated with the best match blood.
“So we’ve got a real need for more donors from the Black community.
“We need – and this is the challenge for us all – 12,000 extra donors and we need an extra 250 blood donations a day.
“That is our challenge to go out there, encourage and bring people into this fabulous centre.”
This will make you laugh
Bugle columnist Charlotte Latimer in the guise of Charlie Lat is taking part in the Rosebuds comedy festival at Clapham’s Bread & Roses Theatre on Saturday 1 February.
She splits the bill with Emma Davies – AUTOIMMUNE (WIP) – an actor, producer and character comedian who runs alternative comedy night, Twinkles Cabaret.
“Auto-immune conditions define self-sabotage,” she says. “This comedic WIP explores the self-sabotaging paradox within in managing health, pursuing personal ambitions, whilst observing the pressures of societal and work expectations.”
In This Must Stay In This Room (also a work in progress) Charlie Lat tells her audience all about the trials, tribulations and downright hilarious humiliations of dating in your thirties. If you are lucky, she might also tell you about her giant dog (no pun intended).
An award-winning comedian, she has done stand-up all over London, headlined in Soho and won the Rising Stars comedy award.
As well as writing a column for the Bugle, she is a member of the Bread and Roses playwriting circle and has had her writing published by the Guardian.
Rosebuds is a new comedy festival at Bread & Roses featuring more than 20 of the best budding alternative comedians in town from 28 January to 2 February.
- Tickets – variable prices
- @_charlielat
- @emmarosedav1es
- @defectorscomedy
