The Times: Schools accused of failing black pupils with sickle‑cell disease

Schools are under fire for penalising pupils who suffer from a rare blood condition that mainly affects people from African and Caribbean backgrounds.

Campaigners say schools and workplaces are failing to support people with sickle-cell disease, an invisible condition that affects 15,000 people in the UK.

Sickle-cell anaemia is a hereditary disease in which the body produces unusually shaped red blood cells that clump together, blocking blood vessels. This results in painful episodes called sickle-cell crises, which can last for months, as well as organ failure and, in some cases, death.

Hayley King, 33, says her daughter Cianna Bent, 11, had a “horrific” time at her primary school, Earley St Peter’s in Wokingham, Berkshire, because staff failed to understand her illness.

Since being diagnosed with sickle-cell anaemia at the age of four, she has been admitted to hospital about four times a year in excruciating pain.

The full online article can be found here.