Sickle cell.

The opening shots of the film are of Notting Hill in London with reggae music on the soundtrack. A health visitor explains how sickle cell traits are inherited. This is illustrated with rostrum shots of a family tree. The narrator explains how it affects the Afro-Caribbean communities (in Britain). Animation is used to show the beating of the heart, the circulation of blood and the difference between iron anaemia and sickle cell anaemia. How the shape of the cells impedes blood flow and causes pain is outlined. A dramatised consultation with the health visitor and a female patient takes place; the health visitor emphasises the seriousness of the condition particularly if the patient wants to have children. She then explains with the aid of illustrations how inheritable sickle cell is statistically. A young man who works as a model maker for travel agents (he constructs model airplanes) explains how distraught he was when he discovered his diagnosis. However, it is made clear in the film that many patients are well for most of the time until they experience a 'crisis' when nursing and medication needs to be provided or even hospitalisation. Finally there is a more positive outlook for people with sickle cell illness with increased life-expectancy, even though the condition is uncurable.