“Oh Sickle Cell...What’s That?”
There are around 12,500-15,000 people in the UK living with sickle cell and there are approximately 240,000 people in the UK with the sickle cell trait and around 60% of these people are based in London alone. Even with these high numbers, meeting someone who simply knows what sickle cell is is an experience for me that comes once in a blue moon. I was recently invited to my friend's church where I met a guy with sickle cell and speaking to him brought me so much relief. Relief in the sense that I was reminded that I’m not the only one going through what I’m going through. I could spend days trying to describe the pain that comes from living with sickle cell but to someone who doesn’t have it the descriptions are basically meaningless, as words alone are not enough, but he could actually understand the pain that I’ve felt because he’s felt it too and we could laugh at the different ways we manage to look after ourselves. The encounter was very brief but the effects are lo