be holding an international conference highlighting facts about the disease, research and treatment strategies.

Every year special events are sponsored to heighten the awareness of the community about sickle cell disease by way of conferences and forums featuring overseas and local experts.

This year there will be a conference and luncheon featuring Professor Graham Serjeant, director of Jamaica's Medical Research Council, as guest speaker.

Other experts speaking about sickle cell and research are Dr. Elizabeth Anionwu, who holds a PhD in clinical genetics and foetal medicine from the University of London, England, Morette Wright who has a BSc diploma in Education from the University of the West Indies and Dr. Keith Cunningham haematologist/chief pathologist at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Professor Serjeant held several prestigious positions at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, England before he went to Kingston, Jamaica on a one-year contract to the Department of Medicine, University of the West Indies in 1996.

It was during that year that he was introduced to the sickle cell disease by Dr. Paul Milner, who had recently started a clinic.

After receiving funding, the Sickle Cell research programme was formed and Professor Serjeant has served as director of the MRC Laboratories from then until now and research of sickle cell has continued.

He is also responsible for the management of a clinic that is set up to provide medical services exclusively to sickle cell patients.

Professor Serjeant has lectured in the Caribbean, North America, Europe and India. He has published two books and approximately 340 scientific papers on sickle cell disease.

Dr. Anionwu received her PhD in health education in 1988 from the Institute of Education, University of London and wrote her thesis on "Health Education and Community Development for Sickle Cell Disorders in Brent''.

She has served as community nurse tutor, Brent Health District; Research Fellow: Brent Sickle Cell Centre/Haemoglobinopathy and head of the Brent Sickle and Thalassaemia Counselling Centre and has also written widely on the disease and the more serious Sickle Cell Anaemia.

Morette Wright was educated at the University of the West Indies where she graduated with a major in mass communications and minor in management studies and has written two books t o help people understand the disease.

Sickle cell, which is very common among black people, is an inherited change in the blood. The protein haemoglobin, which is responsible for the red colour of blood, is made slightly differently in sickle cell disease.

Normal adult haemoglobin (HbA) is replaced by the abnormal sickle haemoglobin (HbS).

In the kidney, conditions are especially favourable for sickness and small areas of damage may sometimes occur leading to blood in the urine. (See story below for more information.) The Sickle Cell Foundation of Bermuda was established in July, 1985. One of the primary movers of its establishment was the family of a young person with sickle cell anaemia, who had that year graduated with high honours from Howard University in Washington DC.

The family believed the support system they had constructed for their child could help other victims of the disease.

The main goals of the foundation are to increase public awareness of the prevalence of the condition and how it is passed on to children at birth.

The foundation also assists "at risk'' population by regular screening for the trait and the provision of counselling to those identified as having the sickle cell trait and to provide services to people with the condition.

The conference will be held at the Hamilton Princess Hotel on Saturday, September 14 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. registration 8.30 a.m. The tickets, which are $35, can be obtained by telephoning 292-3886 or 293-2317.