Professor of Applied Sociology, Unit for the Social Study of Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.

Simon Dyson is Professor of Applied Sociology and is Director of the Unit for the Social Study of Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell at De Montfort University in the United Kingdom.His research interests include all social aspects of the world’s leading genetic conditions, sickle cell thalassaemia. He has had seven books published, including Ethnicity and Screening for Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia; Sickle Cell and Deaths in Custody (with Gwyneth Boswell) and Genetics and Global Public Health: Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia (with Karl Atkin).

He has written numerous articles on the social and political aspects of sickle cell, including such topics as the politics of racism and sickle cell; the experiences of young people with sickle cell, sickle cell and school education, and sickle cell in Africa. He is a scientific advisor to the UK Sickle Cell Society and has spoken on sickle cell at international conferences in North America, Europe and Africa.

African context, challenges, genetic condition, Ghana, healthcare provision, sickle cell disease.