Former Pittsburgh Steeler and MVP of Super Bowl 43, Santonio Holmes is teaming up with OneBlood for Be the MVP of Your Community, a campaign designed to create a call to action for African Americans to donate blood to specifically help sickle cell patients. Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that primarily affects people of African ancestry. Many sickle cell patients require frequent blood transfusions, and in most cases, blood from other African Americans will be the perfect match. Trouble is, less than 5% of African Americans donate blood and that makes finding compatible blood for sickle cell patients a major challenge. Will you be the MVP?
Go behind the scenes of OneBlood with Santonio for an eye-opening look at the massive effort that takes place around-the-clock to find blood for sickle cell patients. Discover why a diverse blood supply is vital for the nation, and meet a sickle cell patient who has had 500 blood transfusions in five years!
I Want To Be An MVP"You can help patients sidelined from sickle cell when you donate blood."
- Santonio Holmes
Sickle cell is the most common inherited blood disease. It causes red blood cells to form abnormal crescent shapes that often get stuck together when traveling through the body, causing painful clots.
If you are part of an organization that would be willing to host a blood drive, please contact us. In this fight, there can be more than one MVP!
“I want to give people battling sickle cell disease a voice. They cannot fight it alone, they need a team. Be the MVP of Your Community is about letting the African American community know that people with sickle cell disease need them on their team. They can be the star player for sickle cell patients by simply becoming a blood donor or hosting a blood drive.”
- Santonio Holmes
(pictured with his son, Santonio Holmes III, a sickle cell warrior)