"If people completely stopped donating, then that's me gone," Siliana Coelho devastatingly declares. It sums up the brutal reality of just how much her life hangs by a thread as someone who suffers from sickle cell.
It's a disease that is more prevalent in people of black heritage and ethnically matched blood provides the best treatment for those patients - but currently, only one per cent of blood donors are black. This is why the NHS urgently needs more black blood donors this year, 16,600 new donors to be exact, to help with the growing demand for blood to treat sickle cell - as demand for all blood types has risen by 52 per cent over the past five years, and is projected to continue to rise.
Siliana, 24, of Ealing, London, was born with the disease - which makes her red blood cells form into abnormal shapes and get stuck, causing life-threatening blockages and complications - and it has dictated every aspect of her life since. She can find herself in excruciating episodes of pain, which she describes as 'like being hit constantly with a hammer' and as if 'you're on fire '.
