Twenty-two community groups and organisations working in London have received a share of £685,000 funding as part of the Government’s commitment to continue to tackle health inequalities and promote organ, blood, and stem cell donation among Black and Asian communities.
The Community Grants Programme, previously known as the Community Investment Scheme, is managed by NHS Blood and Transplant and helps to fund community, faith, or belief organisations to deliver projects that encourage more Black and Asian people to become donors.
More donors are urgently needed because the shortage of donors from Black and Asian communities means patients from these communities can have worse outcomes. People from the same ethnic background are more likely to be a match.
- NHSBT can only provide the best matched blood for people with sickle cell around half the time. Sickle cell is the fastest growing genetic condition in the UK. It is more prevalent in people from Black African or Black Caribbean backgrounds. The NHS needs a record 250 blood donations a day to treat people with sickle cell.
- Black and Asian people wait longer for organ transplants. People from Black, Asian, Mixed or Other minority ethnic backgrounds make up one third of all people on the transplant waiting list, due to the difficulties finding a match.
- White patients have about 80-90% chance of finding a stem cell match from a stranger. However Black, Asian and mixed race people can only find a stem cell match from a stranger around 30-40% of the time.
The Community Grants Programme scheme has shown that enabling grassroots organisations to champion organ, blood and stem cell donation in a culturally relevant way increases awareness and engagement, helping move towards greater health equality and a more diverse donor base.
A total of £685,000 has been distributed among community-based projects across England and Wales. The full list of groups in London is at the end of this release (1). Anthony Nolan is again supporting the programme by providing 40% of the contribution towards projects working on stem cell donation.
Funds that were available for each area were around:
- Blood donation projects – £242,000
- Living kidney donation projects – £113,000
- Deceased organ donation projects – £128,000
- Stem cell donation projects – £102,000
- Combined donation projects (covering more than one type of donation) – £100,000
One example of an organisation in London that will be receiving funding is ‘Gift Of Loving Donation (GOLD)’, who will be working in conjunction with Imperial College Renal and Transplant Centre. Gift of Living Donation is a community organisation working to promote and create awareness of living kidney donation in the Black community.
Dela Idowu, founder of GOLD – Gift Of Living Donation, says: “This is a fantastic opportunity for GOLD, the funding will allow us to improve equity of access to living kidney donation for Black kidney patients. Our goal is to increase the number of pre-emptive living donor kidney transplants for Black kidney patients, reducing the number needing dialysis.
“One element of our work is a scheme to provide Black African Caribbean patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) information about living kidney donation from people within their own community who have lived experience of living kidney donation. GOLD believes Black African Caribbean patients would benefit greatly from talking with Black living donors and living donor recipients to help them make an informed decision about living kidney donation.”
Another successful organisation is Faiths Forum for London which represents nine major faith traditions within the UK to promote interfaith and community cohesion.
Rabbi Natan Levy, of Faith Forums for London, says: “Faiths Forum for London is honoured to continue in partnership with the NHS Blood and Transplant team to support blood donation sign-ups and blood-drives throughout Greater London. Rarely, do we have the clear opportunity to make a donation that actually saves lives and costs us nothing in return except an hour of our time every couple of months. There is no better time to find donors from diverse backgrounds who can provide life-giving treatment for those suffering from sickle-cell disease. We are working hard alongside NHS to ensure that people from every background, faith, ethnicity, and race, can sign-up and give blood quickly and safely, to those who really need it.”
Newham Community Project will be getting a grant too.
Rozina Iqbal, of Newham Community Project executive management team, says: ““We are thrilled to be a part of the imperative NHSBT Organ Donation project. Our project ‘Gateway to Life’ has been initiated for minority ethnic communities to overcome misconceptions concerning organ donations derivative from religious and cultural misunderstandings. Gateway to Life will communicate vital authentic information that may not be readily available. We look forward to hosting a series of workshops, focus groups, and events throughout the year.”
And UPAHAAR are also receiving funding for their work. The grant will help provide much needed logistics support for their stem cell donor registrations campaigns. Dr Siddiq Pulakal, Chairman, UPAHAAR, said “Upahaar has been actively registering stem cell donors from South Asian community for more than 10 years, through our extensive volunteer network, without any external funding. We are pleased and grateful to NHSBT for offering this grant and certainly this is a recognition and a boost to our excellent team of volunteers to continue the work with passion and commitment”
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Altaf Kazi, Assistant Director, Partnerships and Community Engagement at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “We have seen first-hand the abilities of trusted individuals and community groups to prompt conversation, tackle misinformation, educate, and offer reassurance around donation.
“Often a person’s best donor match will share their ethnicity, but too many donation opportunities are missed because families haven’t discussed organ donation, and Black and Asian people are seriously under-represented when it comes to donating blood and stem cells.
“We are really excited to work with these grassroots champions to address inequalities and help save more lives.”
Health Minister Neil O’Brien said: “It is important everyone has the best chance of receiving a potentially life-saving blood, organ or stem cell donation, regardless of their ethnic background and these organisations are helping to make a real difference.
“We’re investing to encourage and increase education about donation among black and Asian communities.
“Thank you to all these grass roots organisations for bringing communities together to transform the lives of thousands of people.”
Henny Braund MBE, Chief Executive at Anthony Nolan, said: “At Anthony Nolan, we’re proud to work with our partners to fund the Community Grants Programme. There are long-standing disparities in access to lifesaving stem cell transplants, with people from a minority ethnic background still much less likely to find a match from an unrelated donor.
“These vital projects will boost the number of stem cell donors from minority ethnic backgrounds on the UK stem cell register. In turn, they will help close the gap in access to lifesaving treatment between patients from minority ethnic backgrounds and those of White ethnicity.”
- More information about the Community Grants Programme can be found here https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/communitygrants or by contacting: community.funding@nhsbt.nhs.uk.
- The Community Grants Programme is part of a Government-funded campaign, led by NHS Blood and Transplant, with support from the National BAME Transplant Alliance (NBTA), and support and funding from Anthony Noland, to address the urgent need for donors from black, Asian and mixed ethnic backgrounds.