The Silent Crisis

There is a global shortage of black stem cell donors. This means, black patients worldwide are far less likely to receive curative stem cell transplants and by consequence more likely to die without appropriate treatment. The All-Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Ethnicity Transplantation and Transfusion in the United Kingdom has termed the shortage of life saving stem cell transplants for black patients a ‘silent crisis’.

‘The Silent Crisis: Bridging the stem cell donation gap’ is a transdisciplinary research project that aims to identify barriers to black donor biobank recruitment in the UK and how these challenges might be addressed. Our work explores the potential of participatory and creative methodologies to respectfully work with community groups to build data collaboratively.

In a series of trial workshops, our transdisciplinary research team are experimenting with LEGO Serious Play and Body Mapping. Alongside outreach, engagement and dissemination, we are interested in the extent to which creative methodologies can democratise the research process and provide participants with greater agency.

Our team of transdisciplinary researchers includes:

  • Dr Jill Shephard is the project lead anda Senior Lecturer in Stem Cell Biology in the School of Biosciences at the University of Kent.

  • Prof Joy Zhang is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent and Founding Director of the Centre for Global Science and Epistemic Justice.

  • Dr Rebecca Cassidy is a Research Associate and NIHR RDS SE Research at the Centre for Health Services Studies at the University of Kent.

  • Camille Serisier is a visual artist and Doctoral Candidate at the University for the Creative Arts, as well as an Affiliated Researcher at the Centre for Global Science and Epistemic Justice. 

The Silent Crisis community partners include:

Press

An interesting article about our project by Katherine Moss.

Impact

In 2024, research from this project was presented by Professor Joy Zhang at Think 7, the G7’s official think tank group conference in Rome. As a result, the G7 policy brief cited our project and two of our four recommendations as formal recommendations for the G7.

Workshops

Following body mapping workshops at the University of Kent in March 2024, our team is currently undertaking co-analysis.