The APPG (All-Party Parliamentary Group) for Sickle Cell and Thalassamia had their annual reception in the House of Common On Tuesday 16 November 2010.
Unfortunately Broken Silence were unable to show their support this year in person due to prior commitments however we have received a report of the event and would like to share it with you all.
As Reported by Representative of the ASYABI
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia (APPG) was set up in 2008, with the main aim to raise Parliament awareness of Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia. Under the Chair of Mrs. Diana Abbott, MP, Shadow Health Secretary and Chairman of the APPG. As to strengthen the fight against this condition, every year, this Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia institution, which involved MPs of All-Party Parliamentary, is offering a Parliamentary reception in the House of Common.
The 2010 reception took place on Tuesday 16th November where Mrs. Abbott had underlined the importance of strengthen the struggle, which despite the efforts of some well known sickle cell organisations in London such as the Sickle Cell Society and the UK Thalassaemia Society, this condition is still not known by some health professionals include GPs from the central of London. She had mentioned the recent died of a 3 years old sufferer of sickle cell in London, where the health professionals should be capable to deal with sickle cell crisis and its complications.
She made a personal statement regarding her involvement within the sickle cell campaigns through a friend of her who has had a child with sickle cell and how stressful she was when she was explaining her daily basis life and woke up in the middle of night due to the sickle cell crisis of her child. She concluded her sentence with a strong emotional temper linked to that testimony and said “I could not stay indifferent to the stressful state in which my friend was constantly”. I wonder, how the common genetic condition in the UK such as Sickle Cell has less attention than other conditions, which are less common but have more attention and support. She thanked all the efforts made by researchers of that field and the campaigns lead by sickle cell organisations across the country and also invited us to carry on with those campaigns for sickle cell to be heard by the largest number of the UK population.
Report made by,
Olivier Mmounda,
Representative of the ASYABI at this meeting
