A few weeks ago I was asked to be apart of The VIP Appeal which is a campaign by the National Blood Service (NBS) targeting South Asian, Black African and Black Caribbean communities to give blood and help meet the need for rare blood types within ethnic minority communities.
I chatted to Kalpna Patel who suffers from a disease called Sickle Cell Beta Thalassemia. As a young child she received a complete blood transfusion which means that all of the blood in her body was taken out and replace with new blood. Kalpna has had to do this once in her life so far but some people that suffer from this disease must have regular blood transfusions every two weeks.
I was surprised when I discovered that our blood type is specific to our ethnic origin. The fact that only 1 percent of South Asian’s in the UK donate blood means that there is a shortage of blood for people who suffer from diseases like Thalassemia Major, in my community.
I donated blood for the very first time and I encourage everyone within the South Asian and Black communities to consider doing the same.
To become a blood donor go to http://www.blood.co.uk/vip
I was absolutely freezing while shooting this video in the studio….but it was all worth it 
