St Francis Xavier Sixth Form College won the 2022 Community Impact Award from SFCA for their work with the African Carribean Leukaemia Trust.
What do singer Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins of TLC fame, former Corrie actress and X Factor star Victoria Ekanoye, and the former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Sir Trevor Phillips all have in common? Well, they are all sufferers or carriers of sickle cell anaemia, the most common type of sickle cell disease.
Sufferers of sickle cell disease produce red blood cells which distort into a sickle shape when they give up their oxygen. Such sickle-shaped cells are not as flexible and may become stuck in the narrow blood vessels. When this happens, that part of the body becomes deprived of oxygen, resulting in moderate to excruciating pain in the part of the body affected, with the possibility of permanent damage to the tissue. Sickle cell disease is particularly common in people with an African or Caribbean heritage.
