Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a serious, life-long, and potentially life-limiting disease that predominately affects the Black community, but awareness of this disease remains low.
People with the disease produce unusually shaped red blood cells. These cells don’t live as long as healthy blood cells and can block blood vessels, leading to a chronic cycle of so-called sickle cell crises, as well as a host of other long-term problems such as increased risk of stroke and early death.
Many people with the disease end up having repeated hospital trips, often enduring hours in the emergency room for treatment.
But how do you raise awareness about such a challenging disease that is unfamiliar to many?
Pharma typically leads the way with ads and disease awareness campaigns but one man, hoping to shed light on a disease often hidden in the shadows, has turned to superheroes to spread the message about SCD.
British director Andrew Onwubolu, better known by his stage name Rapman, this month launched his new show “Supacell” on streaming platform Netflix, showing a group of five London-based but seemingly otherwise unconnected Black and multi-racial people suddenly discovering one day they all have a series of strange powers, ranging from super speed and strength to the ability to time travel.
The connection becomes sickle cell disease, talked about in every episode of the first series, with direct issues tackled about living with the disease. The show in July topped Netflix’s global top 10, bringing in more than 18 million views in the first few weeks of its launch.
It’s set up more as a gritty drama rather than a straight sci-fiction series, Onwubolu explains in a radio interview with the BBC. However, the over-arching theme is SCD, which inspired Onwubolu to create the series.
“My curiosity on the disease in general [was the basis for the show],” he said in an interview with BBC’s PM radio show. “I never understood how there can be this disease that mainly affects you because of your color, and I remember going down a bit of a rabbit hole and not being able to find an actual answer [to that question].”
The idea stuck with him. “Sickle cell turns your cells super; like a super-man or a super-woman, and I figured this was a good way to talk about a disease that doesn’t get a lot of airtime.”
Onwubolu knew someone who was “always in hospital” with the disease and was having to get multiple blood transfusions. He spoke to more people and realized that “we need to raise awareness of this,” so he used his “super” idea to create Supacell.
“We’re not preaching about it,” he explains, but “you hear about it [SCD] in every episode and that makes you question what is sickle cell? That then really starts the conversation.”