Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities blood!

Following Mark Dean's Interview with Theo Clarke on the discussion on a film competition to get create a short film to raise awareness for the importance and need of blood donation, and how the collaboration between Don Ebony productions Ltd & Nemffest came together.

Mark Dean and Theo Clarke Interview

NHS BLOOD and Transplant (NHSBT) are looking for aspiring film makers to take part in a competition to help promote blood donation amongst Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities.

The competition will have participants making a short film to urge people from ethnic backgrounds to become blood donors and help improve or save the lives of those in their community.

The short film will show the positive aspects of BME donation and the winner will be entered into the New Element Music and Film Festival (NEMFFEST) on September 29 at the Royal Albert in Hall Nottingham, an event dedicated to uncovering and promoting hidden talent in film and music.

The film should be no more than 4 minutes in length on the  need for blood for (BME) for  Conditions like Sickle Cell Anaemia and Thalassaemia Major that are prevalent within the Black and Asian community and sufferers often require regular blood transfusions to stay alive. So with less than 4 per cent of all blood being donated by people from BME backgrounds, it’s vital that we get more donors within these communities give blood.

 Even  Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities. accident and emergency victims need your blood too!

Working with Don Ebony Productions Ltd, NHSBT are aiming to encourage young potential film directors to become ‘Reel Heroes’.

Films must be submitted by Sunday September 16 2012 

Film submission

What is Sickle Cell Disease ?

What is Sickle Cell Disease? Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that affects red blood cells. People with sickle cell disease have red blood cells that contain mostly hemoglobin* S, an abnormal type of hemoglobin. Sometimes these red blood cells become sickle-shaped (crescent shaped) and have difficulty passing through small blood vessels.










http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sickle-cell-anaemia/Pages/Introduction.aspx





you can't catch it like you can catch a cold or the flu. Kids are born with the disease when both parents pass along the sickle cell anemia gene to their children.

More African Americans have sickle cell anemia than any other group of people. About 1 out of every 500 African Americans has the disease. But some people whose ancestors came from countries around the Mediterranean Sea — like Greece, Italy, and Saudi Arabia — have sickle cell genes, too.

Some scientists think sickle cell anemia may be connected to malaria , a serious and sometimes deadly disease that was very common in those countries. It is believed that people who carry the gene for sickle cell anemia are less likely to catch malaria. So more of these people survived and passed on the sickle cell gene to their children.

Quote from The Times Online

"There are estimated to be between 12,500 and 15,000 people in the UK
with the disease and more than one in nine of the population are carriers.
In the main, sickle cell is found in people whose families come from the
Caribbean, Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and Asia,
but carriers are also being found in the white population as a result of
intermixing many generations ago.
Although numbers are very low, they indicate that sickle cell disease can
no longer be regarded as confined to specific sections of the population
and highlight the importance of antenatal and newborn screening.
The NHS's newborn screening programme, which has covered the whole
of England since 2006, shows that sickle cell is increasingly present
anywhere in the country and not just confined to areas of London and the
West Midlands, where Afro-Caribbean families have traditionally settled.
There are, however, still high concentrations in certain London boroughs
such as Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark where there are an estimated
3,000 cases, 600 of them children."

Teach our children about the disease click this link

Also further details

http://www.sicklecellsociety.org/
Living with Sickle Cell Disease
The physical effects
Treatment and day-to-day life