The North Middlesex Hospital's Haematology Department needs to acquire an automatic blood transfusion unit for it's Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia patients. We need your help.

A new automatic blood transfusion treatment will half the number of visits to hospital for people with Sickle Cell Disease. Professor Carole Longson MBE, Director of the Nice Centre for Health Technology Evaluation, said "The device could save the NHS in England an estimated £13 million each year – around £18,000 per patient – with the size of the saving depending on the patient’s condition and the equipment already owned by the NHS." (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12179801/Life-changing-Sickle-Cell-Disease-treatment-approved-by-NHS-watchdog.html)

What is Sickle Cell Disease?

Sickle cell disease is the name for a group of inherited conditions that affect the red blood cells. The most serious type is called sickle cell anaemia.

Sickle cell disease mainly affects people of African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, Eastern Mediterranean and Asian origin. In the UK, it's particularly common in people with an African or Caribbean family background.

People with sickle cell disease produce unusually shaped red blood cells that can cause problems because they don't live as long as healthy blood cells and they can become stuck in blood vessels.

Sickle cell disease is a serious and lifelong condition, which causes acute and chronic severe pain, organ damage, strokes and death. Although long-term treatment can help manage many of the problems associated with this disease it remains a serious disease limiting life expectancy and quality of life.

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