Joss, Maya and Xin Yi have all participated in the Comics for Life: Silence to Strength mentorship programme, and are now joined by Imogen Mangle to produce further illustrations to help promote World Blood Donor Day!
This year, the World Health Organisation has released the theme of World Blood Donor Day as ’20 years of celebrating giving: Thank you blood donors’. The World Health Organisation aim to recognise the selfless nature of blood donors, and the need to continue to promote a positive culture of blood donation across the younger generation of our communities (1). Also World Sickle Cell Awareness Day is held annually on June 19.
In 2022/23, 17-24 year olds only made up 7.2% of blood donors in the UK, a rapidly declining figure which needs addressing fast (2). In 2023/24, there were 224,658 new registrations for blood donation, a shocking 47.38% decrease since 2020/21 (3).
Register to donate blood here.
Joss Athey
Joss is a University of Brighton BA (Hons) Illustration student and you can visit Joss’s website
here. Joss says “Creator of outlandish comics and deranged satire cartoons, my illustrations typically critique modern British culture and society. I’m excited to be working with Donor Research on this project as it provides me with the opportunity to work on something impactful to those suffering from sickle cell. I have epilepsy, raising awareness to invisible diseases is an important and close topic to me.”
Maya Cracknell
Visit Maya’s website
here. Maya is also a BA(Hons) Illustration student at the University of Brighton. Maya says “I’m a Polish-British artist and third year student of Illustration. I create a lot of graphic novel, comic book and animation-based work surrounding themes of mental health and neurodivergence. I use my own experiences as an inspiration to create true to life stories that people can relate to and learn something from. It was great to be able to work on this project as I love connecting with other people and deepening my understanding of what they are going through.”
Imogen Mangle
Visit Imogen’s website
hereImogen Mangle (She/Him) is a comic creator and associate lecturer of Illustration from the South West of England. His experiences as a queer, black mixed, autistic person have heavily influenced his approach to narratives, which focus on feelings of otherness, discomfort, and the pursuit of acceptance. She has been working with acclaimed editor Shelly Bond on several successfully Kickstarted books on editing comics (Filth & Grammar, Fast Times) and works on her own less-reputable short comics in her own time (Destroy The Office, What Am I, Galatean Girlfriend).
Xin Yi
Xin Yi is one of our very own Champions, and has also written a blog post on her comic mentorship with Sarah Akinterinwa. Xin Yi is a BA (Hons) Illustration artist, and creates exceptional illustrative pieces for Donor Research. Xin Yi says “I like to experiment with different mediums and platforms in my work, and it was exciting to work with Donor Research to create visual stories for a meaningful cause. Working with a team that puts in so much work and heart into what they believe in has been inspiring to me as a storyteller.”
References
1.World Blood Donor Day 2024 [Internet]. www.who.int. Available from: https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-blood-donor-day/2024
2. Call for more Millennials and Gen Zs to give blood [Internet]. NHS Blood Donation. [cited 2024 Jun 13]. Available from: https://www.blood.co.uk/news-and-campaigns/news-and-statements/call-for-more-millennials-and-gen-zs-to-give-blood/#:~:text=17%2D24%2Dyear%2Dolds%20made%20up%207.2%20percent%20of
3. NHS Blood and Transplant. Blood donation statistics [Internet]. NHS Blood and Transplant. 2019. Available from: https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/how-you-can-help/get-involved/share-statistics/blood-donation-statistics/
JUST INCREDIBLE WORK ALL AROUND. VIVA COMICS!