We are sharing news of this important campaign, on behalf of the NHS Blood and Transplant services, which includes the opportunity to attend a webinar on 29th September.
NHS Blood and Transplant are pleased to announce our latest Black donor recruitment campaign - Bonded by Blood. A Mother’s Story. This campaign is brought to you by ACLT (African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust), Unsickle My Cells, SickleKan and The Richard Okorogheye Foundation and is supported by NHSBT and is in memory of Richard Okorogheye, the 19-year-old young man who first appeared in the national news in April 2021 after disappearing from his home in London. Richard had sickle cell and needed regular blood transfusions to stay well. Sadly his body was found 2 weeks later, 20 miles away from home in Epping Forest.
To remember Richard, Bonded By Blood, a coalition of mothers (including Evidence Joel, Richard Okorogheye’s mother) who have seen the lifesaving power of blood first hand and blood charities are urging our Black communities to step forward and donate blood. The number of Black people donating in recent years has grown but to meet hospital demand and to provide the best blood match to patients, we still need more. This year we need 16000 new donors of Black heritage to help treat the majority of 15,000 sickle cell patients in the UK. We will be running Blood Donation Sessions in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and London over the next 3 weeks coinciding with both World Sickle Cell Awareness Month (September) and Black History Month (October).
Zoom Stakeholder Webinar – Bonded by Blood Campaign Briefing
We would also really like to encourage you to join a Zoom Stakeholder Webinar. This campaign call will give you an insight into Bonded by Blood and outline the ways that you and your organisation can support the campaign: Wednesday 29th September at 5 pm. You register to join using the following links (also featured in the toolkit). After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Topic: Stakeholder Campaign Call - Bonded by Blood. A Mother’s Story
When: Sep 29, 2021 05:00 PM London
Register in advance for this webinar:
Campaign Toolkit
To access more information about the campaign and get involved by sharing our campaign assets – please access our Bonded by Blood Toolkit here.
(cover photo courtesy of Amir Esrafili at Unsplash)