By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
In order to commemorate September as Sickle Cell Awareness Month, the KD Hall Foundation, in partnership with the American Red Cross, is holding a blood drive on Thurs., Sept. 7 from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the 2100 Building in Seattle. The aim is to bring awareness and increase the blood supply for those afflicted with Sickle Cell and other blood disorders.
Sickle Cell disease is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders that affect hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen through the body. The condition affects more than 100,000 people in the United States and 20 million people worldwide.
Normally, red blood cells are disc-shaped and flexible enough to move easily through the blood vessels. If you have sickle cell disease, your red blood cells are crescent- or “sickle”-shaped. These cells do not bend or move easily and can block blood flow to the rest of your body.
The blocked blood flow through the body can lead to serious problems, including stroke, eye problems, infections, and episodes of pain called pain crises.
“The Sickle cell disease is considered a rare disorder,” says Alix Dassler, a Sickle Cell Program provider at Seattle Children’s Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic. “However, it is the most common problem in hemoglobin and the most common problem with the red blood cells that is genetic.”
Inspired by the strength of her daughter KJ, who has Sickle Cell, KD Hall, founder of the KD Hall Foundation, is using her platform to inform and provide opportunities for Black and Brown people to come together and give blood for the many children and adults who are suffering from the debilitating disease.
“When we had KJ, my oldest daughter, we learned that she had sickle cell,” says Hall. “From there we got all the bad news from medical providers about what can happen to your child, and that she won’t have a quality life nor a long life, and we didn’t buy it, we just didn’t buy it.”
“My husband quit his job and began studying naturopathic medicine for a year during the pandemic so we could figure out her and her body,” continued Hall. “The last three years we’ve only had one crisis a year; we barely have crises because of what we are doing with her, working on her immune system and keeping atop all her medicines.
According to the National Institute of Health, Sickle Cell disease is a lifelong illness. A blood and bone marrow transplant is currently the only cure for Sickle Cell disease, but there are effective treatments such as blood transfusions that can reduce symptoms, manage conditions, and prolong life.
“When you live with sickle cell anemia, or any autoimmune disease, particularly a blood disease, your blood gets thick and clotted and if there is not proper nutrition, proper treatment, proper medicine, and diagnosis and blood evaporates, you need a blood transfusion,” Hall explains. “Thankfully my daughter hasn’t experienced that, but it can also cause strokes, and if you give blood as a Black person giving blood, the chances of that blood helping another Black body are a lot more likely than a white person giving blood.”
“It is much easier to find a donor for our patients with sickle cell disease, especially those that require repeated blood transfusions to stay alive, when the donor pool is a representative of their ethnic background,” adds Dassler.
The KD Hall Foundation and the American Red Cross are working and urging community members, particularly Black and Brown members, to participate in the blood drive to provide this much-needed and precious resource.
“We [Black people] do not normally give blood; there is not a lot of blood from Black people in blood banks. That is the first thing,” says Hall. “We want blood, period, from anyone and everybody, so we are putting out a call to action to our Black community, because at the end of the day our blood is so important. When we need blood, if we don’t have the right type of blood—and I don’t want to sound scary—but these kids can die.
Dassler agrees and says that it is important to build awareness to increase the blood supply from people of color.
“By keeping the community aware it can hopefully increase awareness, funding, which will in turn increase research for new treatments and medications, increase support services for the population which is definitely needed. Which will allow our patients to feel like they are not going through this journey alone,” says Dassler.
“It is extremely important for our patient population that blood banks are robust and have a robust supply and a diverse supply,” she continued. “Race is a social construct, but there are genetic differences that come from certain parts of the world, like sickle cell disease that tends to run in people whose ancestry is from Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.”
