Brixton Blood Donor centre hosted two recent events where a top influencer, the Jamaican High Commissioner in the UK and leading figures from the island’s business and entertainment scenes urged people of Black heritage to help sufferers of the deadly sickle cell disorder by donating blood. Ava Griffiths reports
Turning pain into power
Adesayo Talabi, known to her followers as influencer Simply Sayo, chose Brixton to launch a powerful year-long campaign titled It Takes a Village in partnership with NHS Blood and Transplant.
The initiative seeks to recruit 16,000 new blood donors from Black heritage communities across the UK to address the critical shortage of well-matched blood for patients living with sickle cell disorder.
People with sickle cell disease produce abnormally shaped red blood cells that do not live as long as healthy ones and can block blood vessels, leading to severe pain, organ damage and other serious complications.
Sickle cell is the UK’s fastest-growing inherited blood condition and disproportionately affects people of Black heritage. To address this, the campaign will include a series of community-focused blood drives encouraging people to register and donate.
The first official drive took place at the Brixton Donor Centre, where 120 people turned up to give blood – a record-breaking turnout for a single event, according to NHS contacts.
Sayo’s story
Sayo spoke to the Blog about her deeply personal connection to the cause, sharing her heartbreaking loss of two sisters to sickle cell disorder – one who passed away as a baby, and the other as a young girl.
“I know the impact of sickle cell,” she says. “I’ve seen my sister cry out and wail in agonising pain during crisis episodes.”
Witnessing that level of suffering throughout her childhood left a deep impression on Sayo. “It’s been burned into my psyche,” she says – reflecting on a memory that continues to fuel her advocacy.
“I say this as explicitly as I can because people don’t understand the severity of sickle cell and the toll it takes on those living with it.”
Sayo’s lived experience has driven her long-standing commitment to raising awareness, challenging the stigma and misconceptions surrounding the condition, and encouraging blood donation within Black communities.
There remains a widespread lack of understanding about sickle cell – and, for many, a hesitancy or fear around giving blood – which makes this campaign all the more vital.
“Until my sister passed away, I had no idea sickle cell could kill,” Sayo says. “But when you’re faced with that child suffering – it radicalises you, it changes you.” Sayo’s story, sadly, is not unique. “I know so many people who have lost loved ones to sickle cell,” she says, a heartbreaking reality that underpins the urgency of action.
Breaking through barriers of mistrust
Asked about the hesitancy around blood donation in Black heritage communities, Sayo points to a deep-rooted “mistrust of the medical industry – which is completely founded in proven fact and lived experience.” She highlights the lasting impact of medical racism and the way many Black patients have been “criminalised and stigmatised” by healthcare professionals.
While Sayo acknowledges and sympathises with this mistrust, she also addresses some of the cultural barriers that can make open conversation even harder: “The over-spiritualising of the condition – and the way it’s often shrouded in conspiratorial silence – does not benefit anyone.”
However, following the impressive turnout at the first blood drive in Brixton, there is a strong sense of hope for the campaign’s impact. As Sayo says: “That’s the kind of energy towards donating that I know the community has.”
Harnessing power of social media
The response has been positive not only in person but also online. With a large social media following – half a million on TikTok and nearly 400,000 on Instagram – Sayo has used these platforms effectively to raise awareness and engage the community.
She initially told her story on Twitter (now X), creating a space for vulnerability and dialogue. Her TikTok videos have reached wide audiences, with one campaign-related post garnering over 300,000 views – a powerful example of how online engagement can translate into real-world action, including blood donations.
On Instagram, Sayo shares powerful content featuring bags of donated blood and people giving blood, helping to normalise the act of donation. As she puts it: “This is bigger than your fear of needles.”
A call to unity beyond backgrounds
Sayo concludes with a crucial point: while sickle cell predominantly affects people of Black heritage, raising awareness and supporting the cause is a responsibility that transcends background.
She stresses that everyone has a role to play in spreading the message about the importance of ethnically matched blood donations and sickle cell awareness.
“You are likely to have friends who have been impacted,” she explains. “It is a communal problem – if you care about them, you need to care for them.”
For Sayo, this is not just a call for empathy; it’s a call to action grounded in our shared humanity. “This is in our human power to help,” she says, reminding us all that supporting this cause is something within everyone’s reach.
To stay updated on the It Takes a Village campaign, be sure to follow the official accounts:
Campaign Instagram: @itav.campaign
Sayo’s Instagram: @simplysayo
TikTok: @simply_sayo
Jamaica joins the appeal
Jamaica’s top diplomat in the UK and one of the island’s leading comedy actors visited Brixton Blood Donation Centre to mobilise UK Jamaican communities to give blood and save Black British lives blighted by sickle cell disorder.
Jamaican High Commissioner Alexander Williams has written to the Jamaican diaspora in the UK urging them to become blood donors.
Legendary actor Oliver Samuels joined the appeal for Black blood donors during his sell-out UK tour which visits Brixton’s O2 Academy on Sunday (26 October).
Leading Jamaican company Seprod will launch a partnership with NHS Blood and Transplant to put a donor recruitment message on thousands of drink cans.
His Excellency Alexander Williams, was just one of a contingent of Jamaican business and cultural figures to visit the donor centre to mark Black History Month.
Sickle cell disease is the country’s fastest-growing inherited blood disorder and disproportionately affects Black African and Caribbean communities.
Alexander Williams has contacted Jamaican charities and community groups in the UK, urging them to register to become blood donors.
Richard Pandohie, CEO of Seprod, and Sanjay Wadhwani, managing director of Wanis International Foods, their UK distributor, were also at the Brixton donor centre.
The two companies have partnered with NHS Blood and Transplant to print a message and QR code – linking to a blood donor registration page – on more than 155,000 cans of their vanilla-flavoured drink Supligen, which will be available in supermarkets across the country.
Black heritage donors are 10 times more likely to have the Ro blood subtype used to treat sickle cell than any other ethnicity, so recruiting more Black heritage donors is a priority for NHSBT.
NHSBT data shows that around 50% of the time, sickle cell patients receive blood that is not the best possible match. Initiatives to mobilise Black heritage communities to donate are vital to securing enough blood to satisfy demand.
If you are able to donate blood, you can book an appointment at the Brixton Blood Donor Centre at:
blood.co.uk/the-donation-process/about-our-donation-venues/brixton
