This Founder's Letter is part of a campaign in partnership with NHS Blood & Transplant

So this topic of giving blood, this item on my to-do list that kept getting pushed aside, became even more personal. And although I went through my first pregnancy mentally committed to giving blood, you could probably guess what happened between baby number one and baby number two and the general highs and lows of life, right? I still hadn’t given blood.

When it came to my attention, through news reports and notices on the London Underground tube (yes, you read that correctly) that there was an amber alert from the NHS about critically low blood supplies and that these low levels of blood supplies would significantly impact Black Britons more than most, this task that I had been meaning to tick off for four years rose back up to the top of my mental to-do list.

With sickle cell disease being the fastest genetic disorder in the country, it is imperative that we sign up to be blood donors if we haven’t done so or continue to give blood if we are already blood donors. The demand for blood to treat sickle cell has increased by 67% in the last five years. It’s a statistic that blows my mind. It’s a statistic that should be dominating our government’s health agenda. Alas, it’s a statistic that is rarely - if ever - mentioned by those in power in our healthcare system because Black British health is never a priority for those that sit in Parliament.

I want to add that it isn’t just those with sickle cell disease that makes the Black British community more in need of blood donations. Black Britons along with Asian Britons are more likely to develop high blood pressure, diabetes and certain forms of hepatitis than our white counterparts. The fact is that with blood supplies levels so low, the risk of Black Britons' lives is on the line. I don’t say that lightly. I say that because I have taken giving blood for granted; I’ve treated it like a can I kicked down the road for the last four years and I can no longer have that attitude. I can no longer treat giving blood as something I’ll get round to. It should be something I do regularly to play my role in keeping our community healthy and potentially save the lives of people in our community.

As Black Britons, we have always known that in order to exist in British society, we must look after ourselves and one another. We must know where our community most needs help and where we can all play our parts in pushing our needs, agendas and wants forward. Well, from a health point, giving blood is where we are most in need. I am often asked by black women and people, ‘What can I do to make impact?’ Well, this year more than ever, especially in this October where the theme for Black History Month is Action Not Words, let’s register to be blood donors and let’s take that first step to give blood.

Black Ballad has a responsibility to black women and the wider black community to play our part in keeping black women and people healthy emotionally, mentally and physically. We do that by creating space for our stories to be told away from the white gaze and for the words of black women and people to be told in an unfiltered and unwhitewashed way. Yet, like most companies, brands and organisations, we can always do more. So we are committing ourselves to help increase the amount of black blood donors, because if just one person uses the link to register to become a blood donor, it could be the difference between life and death for a black woman, girl, boy, man or person that looks like you and I.

As I end this newsletter, if you haven’t registered to be a blood donor, please do so. Though I don’t think any newsletter can get across how imperative it is for each of us to register and give blood, I hope this newsletter acts as rallying cry for us to change the narrative of the NHS stating that they are in short supply of blood types needed for black patients. And just in case you are wondering, I finally picked up the can. I have registered to be a blood donor and booked my appointment at my local blood centre. While I definitely should have done it sooner, it is better late than never.