MP backs health project for black communities

A PROJECT designed to improve health outcomes in black communities has launched in Newcastle's Grainger Market.

- SAM VOLPE Health reporter

And it has been welcomed by a city MP who said it would help to right a centuries-old wrong.

Dame Chi Onwurah, the Labour MP for Newcastle Central and West, said the Improving Black Health Outcomes (IBHO) BioResource study was vital and would help to address a historical problem that has long seen health research focus on white men.

The study helps to link up would-be participants with relevant research projects examining how conditions such as sickle cell disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease uniquely affect black people. Those both with and without existing health conditions can take part.

Speaking at the launch at the market's Being Well Place, Ms Onwurah said: "It's a fantastic, world-leading project to address terrible health inequalities.

"For centuries medical research has generally been done on white men of a certain class and certain age.

"Part of this here is opening it up and bringing in black communities - and we have significant black populations in the North East - and for them to participate, share their experiences and data so research can build the right treatment and understanding of different conditions for them."