(Part 1/2) Growing up with sickle cell anaemia was stressful. Sometimes I had to be out of school and in hospital. I wasn’t allowed to eat certain things or do some things like play when other kids were playing, especially in the rain.

When I got into University, it was fun. I had happy-go-lucky friends. I was a Christian even though I was brought up in a Muslim home. I had been going to church with my neighbour since my childhood, so I’d never really practised Islam. 

I remember towards the end of my 200 level, I started feeling pain in my right hip. Before then I had a fall, so I felt I was having the pain because of the fall. I just kept hoping it would go but it didn’t and it got worse. After the 5th month, I had to go to Lagos State General Hospital in Gbagada to see a doctor. I did an X-ray and some other things and the doctor said I had a condition called avascular necrosis and it would go eventually. He said they would put me on 3 months’ bed rest and that I had to take the stress off the hip so it could heal. I was given crutches and was so upset about it. I felt all my crushes in school wouldn’t toast me again (just kidding, *laughs*). 

So, in my 300 level I started using crutches for a few months hoping my hip would heal. It did get better but it didn’t heal completely. I eventually dumped the crutches and started to limp. So, at school people referred to me as the girl that limped. 

I graduated still limping. I did my NYSC limping and I even started work limping. I am a fashion designer and I would go to Yaba to get materials even with my bad leg, but I didn’t mind because I loved my work. Sadly, I couldn’t stay too long on a sewing machine because of my hip, so it kind of affected me as a fashion designer. 

(Part 2/2) By the end of 2014, the pain got worse though I was put on some strong drugs which I’d been using for 4 years. How my kidneys and liver are still functioning properly, I believe, is a miracle. At some point the doctors had to beg me to stop using the drugs, but because I was already addicted to them and couldn’t function well without taking them, I didn’t stop.

There was this day I was in serious pain. I had mood swings, and was basically going crazy. So, my sister went online to check for solutions to my predicament. She stumbled on Dr Akinyanju of Sickle Cell Foundation, Idi Araba, Lagos. She mailed them and we were given an appointment.

We met with one of the counsellors and she said it was not an issue. Imagine for my twenty something years of being a sickler, I didn’t know what I had was something sicklers have. Nobody told me that. The doctor said all I needed was a hip replacement. They would remove the bad hip and replace it with an artificial one. I was referred to Igbobi Orthopaedic Hospital. The bill was well over a million naira. We wondered where we would get the money from. Somehow, the money was raised and I was able to do the operation in March 2015. It took me about 6 months to heal. I couldn’t do anything within the 6 months. 

Let me just say that every step of the way I had to fight, even while I was in the ICU after my surgery. 

I felt I was sick till I met someone in the ICU who had a worse condition. She was on oxygen and even in my state of not being able to do anything by myself, I was still praying for this lady. That alone was a defining moment for me. You think your life is upside down, or you’ve been through so many things, till you meet someone who has been through worse. It just makes you thank God despite what you’re going through. We lost the lady in the end.

I know that each step of my life since I was born till now, has a purpose. 

Today, though I still have sickle cell anaemia, I haven’t been sick since December 2015. I’m a fashion designer and also engaged to a lovely man.