"Live Fast, Die Young?"
We’re getting to the end of a biology lesson and in an attempt to excite the class for the next lesson my teacher puts up a slide saying “Why people with sickle cell die young”. I froze. I knew this lesson was coming eventually but I didn’t expect him to take that approach. I know my teacher meant no harm, I mean what were the chances that the only black girl in the sixth form had sickle cell? My teacher must have seen the blank expression on my face and he did some digging to find out if I had sickle cell or not. Once he confirmed his suspicions he called me to the side one day to ask me how I was, how I think he should approach the lesson and if I mind letting my classmates know. I told him that he should just continue the way he initially planned and that I didn’t want to tell my class mates. When the lesson finally came I could tell that my teacher significantly watered down the facts. With every symptom of SCA listed he added a disclaimer, he changed his stance from sickl