Grant Applicant: The Crescent Cell

The feature below is brought to you by The Crescent Cell, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. 

To learn more about The Crescent Cell, please visit their website page: here.

Faces of Sickle Cell Strength.

The light was dim. The heavily conditioned air of the room contrasted the humid August heat. Although the afternoon was still, through a wooden door, a piercing cry filled the air. In the clinical room beyond the wooden door, the agonizing pain from a ten year old boy met no relief from the healthcare providers' voices of reassurance.

As I sat down to take pain medication for myself, I reflected on the young child’s experience. The long days dragging into the night, the pain, the tears, the isolation, were all too familiar. Even with a ten year difference, the treatment options for what we were both going through had made little progress.

It is the unfortunate fate that over 100,000 people in the United States, including the ten year boy and myself, are forced to face everyday. We are bonded through blood by a simple genetic mutation called sickle cell disease.

All through my life, I did my best to hide the effects of sickle cell. You can’t tell someone has it just by appearance, so it becomes manageable to hide. Just as the condition is deemed “the forgotten disease,” I, like many sickle cell warriors, became invisible.

I did my best to avoid what causes the debilitating pain episodes: dress warm, stay hydrated, try to avoid stress and exhaustion. When the pain did happen, I would disappear for days to weeks at a time. I would go from being bedridden to re-entering the world as if nothing happened. I was doing whatever I could to fight sickle cell without people knowing I actually had it. Finally, I committed to what I knew all along: the best way to truly ignite change was to publicly speak out.

I founded The Crescent Cell on a simple mission: to raise sickle cell awareness and support. It started with an online awareness campaign of sickle cell families and supporters sharing their pictures and experiences.

Later, that progressed to visiting high schools. The students were taught that you cannot catch sickle cell from someone else. Both parents must have a copy of the non-healthy sickle cell gene to pass it on. The disorder causes unimaginable pain and damage in any part of the body. The treatments are limited, and we need help.

Many realize that illness takes a toll on the physical body, but the impact on the mind is often negated. Sickle cell is a mutiny on the cells that later transcends to the body, mind, and soul through living in a world cloaked by uncertainty.

The Crescent Cell aims to change this by not only raising awareness about sickle cell, but by also providing patients and families with psycho-social support. Our latest endeavor is partnering with pediatric hospitals to sponsor coping workshops for patients.

We see beauty in the warriors who fight sickle cell every day. We see beauty in the families, caregivers, and supporters who have chosen to support sickle cell in any capacity they can. Most of all, we see beauty in the hope of a world that is free from the pain of sickle cell disease. We hope that you can see the beauty in our dream.

Thank you for your support. #sicklecellstrong

Written by:

Omonike Oyelola, Director