Jourdan Dunn donates on World Sickle Cell Day

Supermodel Jourdan Dunn swapped the bright lights of the fashion runway for the bustle of Brixton Donor Centre to give blood on World Sickle Cell Day.

Jourdan, whose son Riley has sickle cell, donated to help raise awareness of the condition. Riley is one of around 17,000 people in England living with sickle cell, which causes episodes of severe pain and serious health complications. It is the fastest growing inherited blood disorder in the country: around 250 babies a year are born with it.

West Londoner Jourdan forged a glittering global modelling career since bursting on to the scene as a teenager, but her latest campaign has been to highlight the urgent need for more Black heritage blood donors to come forward to help treat sickle cell patients.

Sickle cell is often treated with regular exchange transfusions: lifesaving procedures that have been described as life-changing by those who receive them. For these transfusions to be safe and effective, they need to use well-matched blood, meaning as well as blood groups, subtypes like Ro need to be matched.

Ro is a subtype of the Rh positive blood type. It is by far most common in donors who have Black heritage. More than half (56%) of donors of Black heritage are likely to have the Ro blood type, compared with just 2.4% of other ethnicities. Sickle cell also predominantly affects people with Black heritage.

With the health of thousands of people relying on the exchange transfusions they receive every few weeks, demand for matching blood donors is high. This makes Ro blood incredibly important in the treatment of sickle cell.

Jourdan marked World Sickle Cell Day on 19 June with a donation at the new donor centre in Brixton.

"As a mother who has seen her child battle sickle cell, I am committed to doing all I can to help him, and the thousands of other people with the condition, to have the best chance to live a full and healthy life,” she says.

"That's why I donated blood in Brixton and am asking the Black community to register to do the same. By giving an hour of your time 3 to 4 times a year, you can save up to 12 lives – that’s an amazing power you have in your hands.”

The service currently needs to recruit 16,000 new Black heritage blood donors this year to meet the growing need.

"I'm incredibly thankful to the record numbers of Black donors who have given Blood in Brixton and across the country, but as numbers of sickle cell patients increase, so too does the need for more donors to come forward."