In the Spotlight with Kriti, Miriam & Ton

As part of our ‘In the Spotlight’ interview series, celebrating the people who make Invisible Warrior possible, we spoke with Kriti Palakeeti, Miriam Eliel and Ton van Keimpema at the Great Exhibition Road Festival in June.

Kriti is a second-year medical student at Imperial College London, who volunteers with the Invisible Warrior team – helping to deliver workshops and taking part in public engagement events. Miriam and Ton, both retired physicians living in Amsterdam, are Linda van Keimpema’s parents, one of the co-founders of Invisible Warrior!

How did you first start working with the Invisible Warrior project?

Kriti: I got involved with the Invisible Warrior project in 2025, when I volunteered for the Great Exhibition Road Festival. The Invisible Warrior team was at the festival, and I was supporting them. I loved it so much that I just kept asking them, how can I help more?

Are there any other events I can help with? Since then, we've worked on some workshops together, we've collaborated on some other events together and now I help with some of the project’s social media, as well as volunteering wherever I can.

Ton: I became involved when I heard that [Linda and Invisible Warrior] was going to join the Great Exhibition Road Festival, I was interested in what it would be like, so we decided to visit London.

Miriam: Yes, Ton said, well, it might be interesting to see what Linda is doing with Sickle Cell through the [Invisible Warrior] project. Originally we just came [to the Great Exhibition Road Festival] to look, but because we knew a bit about sickle cell, we ended up becoming volunteers from the first festival.

Ton: And because that was so nice, we came back every year and have really enjoyed meeting people, especially the children who want to learn so much! It’s also become important to me to stress the importance of becoming a blood donor [to the public].

What is it specifically about the Invisible Warrior project that made you want to volunteer your time?

Kriti: I'm a firm believer that volunteering is a very important thing to do. I think it gives back so much more to you than you give it. With Invisible Warrior, I was meeting so many amazing people and I was able to go to so many amazing events. It brought me so much joy.

I'm a firm believer that volunteering is a very important thing to do. I think it gives back so much more to you than you give it. Kriti Palakeeti

But I also learnt so much about Sickle Cell myself. I learnt more about how important it is to learn about your genotype, about things that affected me that I didn't realise, and also more about blood donation. How the small acts you do can impact someone else.  Because blood donating takes about 10-15 minutes, but it really is life changing for other people and it's something that's really required within medicine.

Additionally, as someone who is studying medicine, we do learn about Sickle Cell on the course, but learning about it from the patient perspective is so important. I'm always trying to remind myself why I'm doing medicine. When you're learning in lectures, it's important to go back to the people aspect of it. Because that's why I pursued it. I like the people I meet. I like being able to empower people to make their own decisions and to take charge of their own health. I think it can be really hard to stand for yourself sometimes, especially within healthcare.

So I think it's really important to support projects like this, which empower people to understand their health and give them health literacy, allowing them to make decisions for themselves. It gives the power back to the person, which is really important.

Miriam, Ton – what about you?

Ton: Well for us it is because we want to visit Linda and help our daughter in London! Because we have a medical background, this is a nice project for us to help with but [without Linda] we wouldn’t be here, haha!

Because you both have a medical background, did you know a lot about Sickle Cell already? Or, like Linda has said in the past, do you think that there is a knowledge gap (even within the medical community) about the reality of living with the condition?

Miriam: For me, it’s both. What I found important when I was a doctor was not only the physical consequences of a disease, but also the psychological and social consequences. And that's what the [Invisible Warrior] project is about.

And well, we know that people who are not white have a lot of disadvantages in life, but also in science. I remember learning Sickle Cell is as frequent as cystic fibrosis, but the money spent on science development and investigations is, well it's horrible, just horrible. It's significantly less.

And that makes it even more important for me to be here and tell people [about Sickle Cell].

Why do you think public engagement events like Imperial Lates and the Great Exhibition Road Festival are so important?

You have to move people. Because they are the voters in England and can hopefully influence government to put more attention on diseases like Sickle Cell! Miriam Eliel

Ton: Knowledge is power!

Miriam: Exactly, and also, while scientific publications are necessary you also have to move people. Because they are the voters in England and can hopefully influence government to put more attention on diseases like Sickle Cell as well as other diseases that don’t receive as much [funding, research and attention].

Kriti: It’s also nice because at these events, you meet people who are genuinely interested in science. Of course, a lot of the people at Imperial work within science, it's our job or we study science.  So, we get kind of used to it. But it's nice to be reminded about the passion behind it and that people are genuinely interested in the work we are doing.

It reminds you that the work you're doing is important, and there are people in the general public who are interested in it. It’s really nice to get different perspectives on projects like Invisible Warrior from people outside of academia.

What's been your favourite thing from the 2026 Great Exhibition Road Festival?

Kriti: I've definitely enjoyed the collaboration with Aghh! Zine, a group from Brighton who helped run a workshop where people could design their own mini zine about Sickle Cell. It offered a creative way for people to talk about what they've learnt today, to reflect on something that they've understood about Sickle Cell.

We also had a pledge wall, where people could write down what they've learnt today and kind of sit with the emotion that they've felt from learning more about Sickle Cell. It’s been lovely to have a creative outlet, and a Zen area within a very busy festival!

But mainly, my favourite thing is the people I meet. Having conversations and realizing how much people are learning about Sick Cell. It’s just so important and it makes you feel good at the end of the day, knowing that maybe you've told someone to go donate blood and they're going to go book an appointment. Maybe you've told someone to go get tested for their genotype and that could be really important for them. Just little acts like that.

Oh, and I love the photo booth, I've got some very good memories from that!

Ton: For me it’s just been to receive all these enthusiastic people, and to see Louisa again. Oh and yesterday I was able to make some people enthusiastic about becoming blood donors!

Miriam: Yes definitely seeing Louisa again. I knew from the beginning how Linda got involved with Louisa’s story, and at that time, Louisa was not in good shape. And well, while [Louisa] will always have problems and pain [due to Sickle Cell], it has strengthened her so much to see that there is so much attention on the disease [because of Invisible Warrior].

And yesterday, there was one lady who I spoke to about Sickle Cell, she came from British Guiana and was around 30, I asked her if she has been tested, she said no and I asked if Sickle Cell was in her family. She told me that her cousin had it, so I very much advised her to be tested. Louisa came over and I asked if Louisa wanted to tell her story, and she also advised [this woman] to be tested. So maybe you, well save, that’s too big a word, but maybe [through events like this] you help someone. So that was the best thing about yesterday [for me].