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Swimming is an essential life skill. Everyone should learn to swim, as it could be the difference between life and death. My parents believed similarly and signed me up for swimming lessons as a child. However, I don’t remember the lessons so much as the pain and frequent hospital admissions.

If someone asked you to tell your life story, what would you say? We all have a story. Some might begin by describing their life from the point of meeting their partner, or from high school, or perhaps following the birth of their child. We remember and retell our stories…

I rarely leave London, but this weekend I went on a mini “staycation” to Kent with 24 of my friends for a birthday celebration. Packing We rented a mansion on Airbnb with enough space for the 25 of us, though I was not sure what the environment in the house…

Many things can trigger a sickle cell crisis. The first triggers I experienced ranged from temperature changes in my environment to dehydration. But as I got older, I began to experience a new trigger that took me by surprise: stress. The Oxford dictionary defines stress as a “state…

Fatigue is a common symptom associated with sickle cell disease. Due to the smaller size of our red blood cells, we cannot carry as much oxygen as those with healthier red blood cells. This leads to a lack of oxygen in our bodies and, ultimately, fatigue. Fatigue describes the feeling…

Living with sickle cell disease is not easy. It affects every area of one’s life. An important part of managing the challenges that come with the disease is having a solid support system. I do not have any close friends with sickle cell, but I…

My hospital also is a university full of medical students. Trainees follow their supervisors from patient to patient to get a sense of how their work applies to real-life situations. Nine times out of 10, I love interacting with students. I love to discover the person behind the uniform, and…

For most of my life, I hid the fact that I have sickle cell disease. People only knew about my health if they needed to know. In other words, the only ones I could talk to about it were my immediate family members and doctors. This was not ideal growing…

We were nearing the end of a biology lesson. In an attempt to excite the class for the next lesson, my teacher put up a slide that read, “Why people with sickle cell die young.” I froze. I knew that the topic would come up eventually, but I did not…

Sickle cell disease is a condition that mostly affects people from an African or African-Caribbean origin. Nevertheless, the majority of those who have treated me for this condition have been healthcare professionals of other races. I don’t think they would have typically interacted with sickle cell patients prior to…