An Open Letter to the NHS: Black Blood Donors Are Ready. Are You Ready for Them?
The NHS has called for 16,000 new Black heritage donors. Black Blood is answering that call — but the system also needs to change. An open letter on what meaningful partnership looks like.
Dear NHS Blood and Transplant,
We hear you. 16,000 new Black heritage donors. 250 sickle cell-related donations needed every day. We understand the urgency. Black Blood was built because we understand it.
And we want to work with you. We genuinely do. The mission is shared — more Black donors, better matched blood, more sickle cell patients who can live full lives. There is no daylight between us on the goal.
But we want to be honest with you, too, because honesty is the only foundation for a partnership that actually works.
When Black donors arrive at donation centres, they need to feel expected. Not tolerated. Not an afterthought in campaigns designed around a different community. Expected. Welcomed. Seen.
That means Black faces in your materials — not as a diversity checkbox, but as the norm when you are specifically recruiting Black donors. It means staff training that acknowledges the specific fears and histories our community carries into that room. It means recognition programmes that celebrate our donors as the irreplaceable contributors they are, not just as a supply chain for a product the system needs.
We are not asking you to do this alone. That is why Black Blood exists. We are community-led. We have the trust, the relationships, and the cultural fluency that no national campaign can buy. What we need from you is partnership — real, resourced, respectful partnership.
The donors are ready. They are waiting to feel welcomed. We can help you build that welcome.
Let’s talk. Contact Black Blood.
— The Black Blood Team
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