Today’s Faces of Sickle Cell Disease
September is Sickle Cell Awareness Month. Throughout the month, the NHLBI will share real stories of strength and perseverance. The stories will highlight people living with sickle cell disease, their loved ones, clinicians, and the researchers whose work offers hope for a cure. Read their stories below.
Music producer, entrepreneur, study volunteer His story: Doctors diagnosed Chad Williams with sickle cell disease at age 3, and the memories of the grueling...
Blood donation and patient advocate, sickle cell survivor Her story: When she was 3 years old and still living in Central Africa, in Gabon, doctors diagnosed...
Clevetta Drew, NIH gene therapy trial participant Her story: Clevetta Drew, age 41, was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia at 18 months old and throughout her...
Director of WBPR Agency, and stem cell transplant patient Her story: Wunmi Bakare was 18 months old when her pediatrician, Dorothy Esangbedo, M.D., diagnosed...
Patient, director of the Sickle Cell Community Consortium, research scientist Her story: At age 5, Lakiea Bailey experienced the first sickle cell crisis that...
Lawyer, sickle cell patient, COVID-19 survivor Her story: Natalie Jean-Baptiste, 42, has lived with sickle cell disease her entire life and has forged a...
Blood researcher, branch chief, Division of Blood Diseases and Resources, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Her Story: Traci Mondoro, Ph.D., serves as...
Imagine having sharp, tingling pain running throughout the tiny blood vessels in your bones. What if you couldn’t stop it? What if prescriptions, such as...
Research pioneer, patient advocate, broadcast professional His story: Rodrick Murray was 3 months old when he was diagnosed with sickle cell disease (SCD). This...
Read English Version Representante de pacientes, voluntaria para la Asociación de Células Falciformes de Texas de la Fundación Marc Thomas Su historia: Mercy...
Researcher at University of Lagos, Nigeria, and NIH postdoctoral fellow His story: Kolapo Oyebola, Ph.D., was born in Nigeria, where half the cases of sickle...
Hematologist, Sickle Cell Disease Researcher, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria Her Story: Ten years ago, Obiageli Nnodu, M.D., had an established career as a...