Pain that arrives overnight. Hospital staff who doubt you. Church spaces that sometimes turn prayer into pressure. If you have sickle cell disease, love someone who does, or want to understand why this matters for the Black British community, this conversation is one for you.

This week, I'm joined by my brother, Jonathan Williams, who has lived with sickle cell anaemia his whole life. He describes sickle cell as “uncompromising” and explains what a crisis feels like in plain, human terms: pain in joints, back, and everywhere blood flows. We also talk about the mental impact that gets ignored once you leave hospital, and how stereotypes can shape the way patients are treated, including the painful assumption that someone asking for relief must be drug seeking.

From there we go deeper into faith and suffering. We unpack what Christians often get wrong about chronic illness: the expectation of instant healing, the subtle blame placed on the person still suffering, and the way some churches can make illness into a spectacle. We come back to Jesus’ question to Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?”, as a model for whole-person care, better prayer, and real community. Jonathan also shares practical wisdom on resilience, advocating for yourself in medical settings, and what dating and marriage can look like when sickle cell is part of the story.

If you found this meaningful, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What would you want your church, your GP, or your hospital team to understand about sickle cell pain?

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