Sickle cell disease is an inherited condition which primarily impacts people with genetic ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. It’s caused by a defective gene which alters how red blood cells grow, it mutates them and they become sickle shaped. These cells don’t live as long as healthy blood cells and they can block blood vessels. This can cause severe pain and organ failure.

The main a cure is a bone-marrow transplant but anyone seeking this in Tanzania had to travel abroad for this treatment. But the opening of Tanzania’s first bone marrow transplant unit for sickle cell patients looks set to change life for people there. Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja has been looking at the challenges of living with sickle cell disease and how bone marrow transplants work.