I AM A VOICE FOR SICKLE CELL DISEASE

       Growing up, I thought it was normal for everyone should go to hospital regularly. I found a resting place in hospitals and grew to adapt to the pain of injections. It was at the age of seven or eight, I was able to understand I had Sickle Cell Anaemia. I was convinced by society it was something to hide and be ashamed of. 

       I hid it for almost all of my teenage life, and I grew to feel inferior. I began to lie about my genotype and run away from conversations involving it. Sickle cell was something to run away from...until one day, I began to see people speak up for sickle cell...and tell others we are normal. They made me feel powerful and equal to others. I was able to get courage to feel like others. Nevertheless, I couldn't speak about it.

       Well, this seventeen years old girl of ours(me)...went to a pre-university school. She found herself in the room of lovely girls, but unfortunately, they had a terrible mentality of Sickle cell disease. On a faithful day, one of them brought Sickle cell as a topic, and they all began to contribute on what Sickle cell is. One said she can't be close friends with some with sickle cell because they can die soon, this statement broke me amongst others they said. I found myself separating and being antagonistic to everything they said, any day and anytime. 

       One day, I spoke to a friend of mine about it, and she handled it so well, told me I could speak up. Matter of fact, confiding in her I was SS was amazing, she replied with "an alright" and later explained to me that, she didn't say sorry because it's not a thing to be ashamed for. She explained a lot more to me and encouraged me to speak to them about it.

        A glorious evening, I spoke to them about it.... (drumroll). I started with questions on health issues and then on Sickle cell, giving them benefit of doubt. They justified they lacked knowledge about it by the response they gave. One of them stated, even if she was AA she can never marry and SS, no matter what. I then stated to them I am a Sickle cell warrior, and I am not dying. I explained to them that common, people die from everything and anything, not only sickle cell, and guess what? We aren't dying. I told them I feel like creating awareness and they encouraged me to. They changed their opinions and are proud helpers of my burden for Sickle cell Disease. When I first put out the page on media...there was a lot of repost and support. 

      Our Sickled Stories is a platform for stories on sickle cell disease to be shared. I will be posting a lot of our stories on this blog, so be sure to keep up. In our sickled stories, we create awareness, spread positivity, give advice, render help to warriors and definitely share stories on sickle cell from both warriors and non-warriors. 

I AM A VOICE FOR SICKLE CELL DISEASE

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