Gloria Ademolu would wake every morning in pain. The 26-year-old would need five prescription painkillers a day to cope with the agony caused by sickle cell disease. The engineering student is one of about 15,000 people in England with the genetic, lifelong condition, in which red blood cells are shaped like a crescent (or sickle) rather than a disc.
As well as episodes of extreme pain, Gloria, from Manchester, would need to receive eight bags of blood every six weeks during red blood cell exchange procedures that left her exhausted. The disease, which mainly affects people of Black, Asian and ethnic minority heritage, can damage organs and cause intense pain, as well as anaemia because the blood cells cannot carry oxygen effectively around the body, leaving sufferers with tiredness and shortness of breath.
