Contents

• Young People Support Groups
• Sickle Cell Anaemia Is Not A Problem
• Olu aged 14 from London writes about his life experience of Sickle Cell
• Sickle Cell Trait

Sickle Cell Anaemia Is Not a Problem

I have Sickle Cell Anaemia and I hardly get any pains. I only get a headache about once every two weeks. I have only had a backache once and I only go to a hospital once a year for a check up. I do not take any special tablets, all I take is Penicillin which I take twice a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I also take folic acid daily.

If you also have Sickle Cell, you must take a lot of water, you must ALWAYS take your tablets and you must keep yourself warm, then you will not be different from any other child and Sickle Cell will not interfere with your education.

Written by Mary aged 10 from London.

It sounds as though sickle cell is not a problem for Mary. If you have had different experiences you would like to share, you know where to send them.

Olu aged 14 from London writes about his life experience of Sickle Cell.

Hi, my name is Olu Shonubi and I am about to say my Life Experience of Sickle Cell Anaemia. I about to tell you the way I was affected by it, the time the sickness occurs, the tablets which I take to keep fit and what happens when there's a change in the weather.

How I Got Sickle Cell
I believe that I got Sickle Cell through my parents. The main reason I am born with Sickle Cell is because my mum and dad had got A.S. blood group. That's why I am a Sickler.

What is Sickle Cell?
Sickle Cell is the disease inherited from both the mother and father. It is a sickness that can not be cured, but can be prevented.

The Time The Sickness Occurs
I suffer from different types of sickness like: backache, headache, body pain, stomach ache and so on. The one I suffer from most, which is very painful, is backache and this also causes the body pain. It occurs in the night around 1.15am and stops about three hours later or the next day.

When this sickness occurs I take `Nurofen' tablet. It does help but sometimes it never helps. I believe when I get the pain is when the red blood cell forms a different or funny shape. Sometimes I have a feeling when the backache wants to start, I will immediately take my tablet to prevent it, but it does not always work.

In A Change Of Weather
Whenever the weather condition changes. I always have a CRISIS. For instance when I was coming from Nigeria and I was in the plane I felt the backache coming. Then two days later when I arrive in England I had a terrible backache which caused me to have bad body pain. I was sick for three days. I went to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and I was given penicillin tablets. It helps me and I take it every morning before school and in the afternoon when I get back.

Whenever the weather changes, maybe from summer to winter or from winter to summer I always have crisis and its always backache which turns to body pain.

That is my life experience of Sickle Cell.

Olu is a member of the Hackney Sickle Link Project.

My Worst Crisis Ever

Part One

Here I come again with another epic proportion of my sickle cell life. This story is based on "My Worst Crisis Ever!". This is a non-fiction account. I hope you will enjoy it.

It all started when I was in my second year in my secondary school in Nigeria. Early in the morning I woke up around six o'clock in my boarding house and I have noticed that I could hardly move my body and I am feeling weak. I went to the owner of the boarding house and I told him that I would be unable to go to school with the other students because I need to see a doctor. He called my granny and asked her to come.

About an hour and a half later she arrived and she took me home. Throughout my way home I was very weak, my eyes were very yellow. When I got home I couldn't eat or drink or sleep. I went to the hospital. The doctor gave me some tablets. I stayed home for two weeks in order to recover. My mum was in London by then and she wasn't notified.

After my first two weeks back in school the real thing then happened "My Worst Crisis Ever!" begins.

To be continued.....

Yours sincerely
Olu

Sickle Cell Trait

If you have been told by your Doctor, as the result of a blood test, that you have `Sickle Cell Trait' quite naturally you are concerned. Questions come tumbling through your head. "What does it mean?" "Am I ill?" "Is it serious?" "Can it develop into Sickle Cell Anaemia?" "Can other members of my family get it?" "Is it just a trace?"

Why should all people of child bearing age be tested for Sickle Cell Disease if they are healthy?

It is because this knowledge provides a clue in a medical detective story which can predict whether their future children can be born with Sickle Cell Disease.

However a baby with Trait may be born to parents who BOTH have Haemoglobin AS Trait. Such a couple can in the future have a child with Sickle Cell Anaemia.

Yours faithfully,
Aisha
from Nottingham