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PARTICIPANT: Chanel Taylor

TEAM MARGOT – a charity that campaigns for more people to join the worldwide registers as bone marrow/stem cell donors, particularly those from Black, Asian, minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, is hosting a portrait photography exhibition called ‘The Power of One’, a working collaboration between Team Margot and City Hall’s Peer Outreach Team – a group of 30 young Londoners aged 15-25 years old from diverse backgrounds and life experiences.

The exhibition seeks to raise awareness of a lack of donors from BAME communities and encourage people to register.

In the UK, of patients with white northern European genetic heritage, 69% will receive cells which are a 10/10 match. In stark contrast, only 21% of BAME patients will find an equivalent match. The odds of finding a match are worse still for those of mixed heritage.

One of those featured in the exhibition is 33-year-old, Chanel Taylor, a woman of Afro-Caribbean background. Chanel is passionate about this issue in part because of having sickle cell disease all her life, which affects her on a daily basis and occasionally sees her admitted to hospital to treat excruciating episodes of sickle cell pain.

Chanel also lost a relative to leukaemia, who passed away due to the family being unable to find a good enough donor match.

Chanel says: “I’m proud to be a sickle cell advocate and a voice for the black community to come forward and be educated on the need for more registered donors.”

In her advocacy, Chanel also founded community organisation Unsickle My Cells to raise awareness for sickle cells.

The exhibition will be held in the Map Area, City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA
Running from: Monday 30th October – Friday 24th November
Admission fees: FREE
Opening times: Monday to Thursday, 8.30am to 6pm, and on Friday, 8.30am to 5.30pm

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