Birmingham family with sickle cell back black blood donor plea

Three members of a family with sickle cell are backing a call for more black blood donors to help those with the condition.

Rebecca Solomon-Henry, 39, stated her blood was “becoming harder to match”, as NHS Blood and Transplant said patients on an exchange programme need on average 100 people a year to donate.

Husband Karl, 40, from Birmingham, said thanks to donors, he could “watch our daughter grow up”.

The couple were diagnosed at birth.

Sickle cell causes red blood cells to form into sickle or crescent shapes and become stuck in blood vessels, causing episodes of severe pain known as crises, as well as serious or fatal complications, including organ damage and strokes.

Mr Henry said the disease had “ruled” his life.

“We had a big celebration for my 40th birthday as when I was growing up I was told I wouldn’t live to see it,” he said.

“I suffered strokes and lost the ability to walk or talk. I lost my speech for over a year at the age of nine.

“When people ask me how this affected me at school, the answer is simple. I didn’t go to school that much.”

Speaking during September’s Sickle Cell Awareness Month, NHS Blood and Transplant said although there was an increasing number of black blood donors, “we continue to need more”.

The couple have all their blood replaced by donor blood once a month, a transfusion known as a red cell exchange, and sickle cell patients on the exchange programme need donations from 100 people a year on average.

But only about 50 of these donors were likely to be the best match, putting patients at risk of serious complications, NHS Blood and Transplant said.

It stated where matched blood “isn’t available patients are treated with the universal O negative blood type”, which could “cause them to develop antibodies which puts them at risk of potentially life-threatening reactions”.

The couple’s 13-year-old daughter, Janayah, has required blood transfusions to cope with serious complications.

The girl’s mother said she herself worried her own antibodies “will continue to build and what this could mean for me in the future”.

She added: “In the week before my exchange I’m like a car that’s not functioning well because it’s low on fuel.

“The exchanges have been life-changing. My overnight hospital admissions have decreased greatly and I can live life to the fullest.”

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