Sabrena and her mum, Sobia
Sabrena has the genetic blood disorder, thalassaemia, which causes life-threatening anaemia.
She needs medication every day and needs blood transfusions every three or four weeks to survive.
She gets tired very easily and her treatment means she needs a lot of time off school.
Sabrena's lucky in that her parents can explain to teachers exactly what her needs are. But the condition is most common in Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean communities and parents don't always have English as their first language.
The leafletUK Thalassaemia Society supports families like Sabrena's.
Jeans for Genes provided funding for the Society to produce a leaflet, ‘Thalassaemia in Schools’, which helps parents easily explain their child’s needs to teachers.
Elaine Miller, the Thalassaemia Society’s co-ordinator said; "Children with this condition are in danger of being educationally disadvantaged because of the lack of understanding of this rare condition.
"For example, teachers might not know that they can award medical register points so a child’s record of attendance isn’t affected by the amount of time off they need. This leaflet is proving to be very successful in addressing difficulties like these.”
Copies of the leaflet are available free from UK Thalassaemia at www.ukts.org