Transplant patient calls for more black donors

Toks Odesanmi wants people to be educated about the potential benefits of a transplant

A mother who needed a liver transplant due to sickle cell complications has called for more people of black heritage to donate blood and organs.

Toks Odesanmi, 51, from Colchester, is one of only 50 people to have had the life-saving surgery specifically due to the disease, according to the NHS.

Sickle cell, which affects red blood cells and can block blood vessels, is more common in people of black African and black Caribbean heritage.

"I am very grateful to the family who donated the liver. I wouldn't be alive without that gift," Ms Odesanmi said.

She receives red blood cell exchanges every six weeks to protect her donor liver from damage.

But only 2% of blood donors are black, making it harder to find the best match for some patients.

Ms Odesanmi had her transplant in May 2015

"With black African people I think it's difficult, especially where religion is concerned," Ms Odesanmi said.

"Some people think if you die without some body parts you may not take it to heaven."

The NHS said while a transplant might not be suitable for some sickle patients with liver failure, it could be a lifeline for others.

Its liver transplant policies were updated in September so the surgery could be recommend as the treatment of choice for some patients.

Ms Odesanmi hoped more people could be educated on the benefits of undergoing the process, like she did in 2015.

"My daughter would be without a mother if I hadn't had a donor," she said. "I was so worried she would not even remember me."

Toks Odesanmi says she is "very grateful" to the donor's family

NHS figures showed black people made up 2% of people on its organ donor register, but 8% of the people who died waiting for a transplant were black.

Prof Derek Manas, from NHS Blood and Transplant, said: "The sad reality is there are not enough ethnically-matched organ or blood donors to give patients like Toks and other people with sickle cell disease the best possible treatment.

"People suffer serious complications or even die due to these shortages."