A heartfelt tribute to Professor Graham Serjeant: a life dedicated to sickle cell disease

• Post by: Dr Marie-Dominique HARDY-DESSOURCES
• 29 April 2025
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The sickle cell community is mourning the passing of Professor Graham Serjeant, an eminent figure whose invaluable work on sickle cell disease was recognised internationally. The tribute below was written by his close colleagues at the Sickle Cell Unit in Jamaica, where he worked

Professor Graham Roger Serjeant OJ CMG

How many of us, when our time on earth is over, can say that we changed the world for good?  Such was the life of Professor Graham Roger Serjeant.  His dual passions, for his wife of 60 years Beryl and research to improve the treatment and lives of persons living globally with sickle cell disease (SCD), combined to propel him into an exceptionally impactful life.  Theirs was a partnership in life and in work that is an example for the ages.

Born in 1938 in the United Kingdom, Graham Serjeant having completed his medical studies applied for a job in Jamaica, encouraged by his wife who had spent time in the Caribbean as a child.  Her influence as a medical technologist drew him to work with senior colleagues who were treating persons living with sickle cell disease (PLWSCD).  Intrigued, this became his life’s work.

His preliminary work garnered for him research support from the Medical Research Council (UK) which supported this ground-breaking work until his retirement in 2019.  During this period he established the Sickle Cell Unit (SCU) on the Mona Campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI), the base for research, training and clinical care of affected persons.

The pinnacle of his research efforts were based on the technique, developed by Beryl Serjeant, for screening of newborn babies to see if they had SCD.  They demonstrated, by testing 100,000 consecutive births at Victoria Jubilee Hospital, that newborn screening for SCD could be done on a public health level in states and even countries.  The Jamaica Sickle Cell Cohort Study (JSCCS) identified 550 cases of sickle cell disease, the eldest of which is now more than 50 years old.  As he cared for and studied this cohort of patients, he was the first to demonstrate that vaccines and preventative antibiotics could prevent many of the early deaths seen previously.  Furthermore, they demonstrated that teaching parents simple techniques, such as feeling the belly for an enlarged spleen, and observing for specific signs of illness also impacted survival.   The number of affected children dying before their fifth birthday was halved by these inexpensive interventions.

They went to every nook and cranny of Jamaica to find these individuals from the JSCCS as the latter grew older and moved away from Kingston, to ensure that they received critical, continuing care.  For this, he instituted small clinics in six parts of Jamaica, where he brought the care closer to the scatted participants of the JSCCS. The clinics at Black River and Cornwall Regional Hospitals persisted until after his retirement.  As the Cohort has aged, he carefully investigated the complications they suffered and sought ways to improve the outcomes.  PLWSCD not in the JSCCS also benefitted as they were welcomed for medical care at the SCU.

On his retirement from the SCU, as Professor Emeritus of the UWI, he continued to work with SCD until shortly before his death.  The Manchester Project, a major undertaking in “retirement” involved doing tests for SCD at all high schools in the Southern then Western Regional Health Authorities, counselling those with sickle cell and other traits of their risk of having children with SCD.  This then led to the instigation of newborn screening for SCD in those parishes.  This was a big step forward in the march towards universal screening of all children born in Jamaica with SCD, which was achieved in 2020 in all public and private hospitals through the collaboration between the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Regional Health Authorities, a patient representative and the SCU (Sickle Cell Technical Working Group).

His more than 500 papers in medical journals are evidence of his commitment to understanding the effects of SCD and sharing this knowledge as widely as possible.  His three books have served to provide in depth descriptions of SCD, useful for any clinician treating patients.  This willingness to share his knowledge also led him to directly influence the care of PLWSCD in diverse places such as Brazil, Greece, Nigeria, Uganda, and India.  There, he instigated research projects and positively impacted care, highlighting similarities and differences in the features of the disease across settings.  He also gave talks in numerous medical conferences globally, spreading the knowledge that the course of SCD can be improved with simple and inexpensive interventions. He was not only a global expert in SCD, but also an excellent and entertaining, much sought, speaker at these many scientific meetings.  He welcomed many students, doctors and researchers, who he trained on SCD.  These trainees were initially primarily from the UK, but increasingly included Jamaicans as time went by, and they took their applied knowledge of and interest in SCD with them into their careers.  He developed many tools to educate patients, parents and the general population about SCD.

He also had a significant personal impact on many lives as he mentored and supported young people from the JCSCS, medical professionals, members of the Quaker congregation of which he was a part and people who came into his life by diverse means.  His phenomenal memory was used not only professionally but also to remember details of the lives of those he interacted with, so that he never failed to enquire for their spouses, children and other significant persons when conversing.  He leaves behind many who mourn him as a positive influence in their lives.

His legacy is undoubtedly such that, globally, persons now living with SCD and those as yet unborn will be positively impacted by his work.  They will be more likely to survive longer and have better treatment for the complications of their disease, much of this due to the passion and lifelong work of one Professor Graham Serjeant.

Prs. Jennifer Knight-Madden, Monika Asnani, Lesley King

Sickle Cell Unit, Caribbean Institute for Health Research, UWI.