NHS sickle cell patients face barriers to new treatment

Sickle cell is an incurable disease that can mean a lifetime of blood transfusions, transplants and episodes of excruciating pain. Until recently, there has been little in the way of treatment.

But a new drug approved for use in the NHS could see as many as a third of the 15,000 sickle cell patients in this country getting a treatment that reduces that pain.

But – for many – there are barriers to getting it.

We heard from some of those patients.