ABSTRACT

Sickle-cell anaemia and thalassaemia are genetic conditions which affect people from Black and ethnic minority communities in much greater numbers than White people, and they remain ill-understood. In this chapter Simon Dyson explains how these two conditions affect the lives of the children and adults who have them and considers their educational consequences. The lack of resources allocated to tackling the conditions and widespread ignorance of their effects, Dyson argues, may indicate underlying racism.