Nigerian singer, Adekunle Gold, has recounted being attacked and abused online for publicly speaking about his struggle with sickle cell disease.
The Next Edition reports that the ‘Orente’ crooner, in a recent interview with CNN, said he decided to create awareness about sickle cell disease after summoning the courage to speak up.
The singer said he is on a mission to make people living with sickle cell feel safe and feel they have support.
Adekunle Gold said he has always been aware of his ailment since he was a child, and notwithstanding, he constantly put himself in situations that made him sick.
He said, “I want people living with sickle cell to feel safe, to feel like they have help and support.
“They call you a sickler… Recently, when I talked about it [my struggle with sickle cell] on the song [‘5-star’], I saw a lot of tweets from people attacking and abusing me.
“I’m speaking about sickle cell disease now because I just got the courage to come out and speak up openly about it. A lot of people can’t share their stories like I can.
“I’ve known about my sickle cell disease all my life. I knew since I was a child that I couldn’t do certain things. They said, ‘You know you have sickle cell, you can’t play football in the rain just like your peers.’ And I was like, ‘No, I want to play.’ I’ve always been rebellious.
“I’ve known about my sickle cell disease all my life because growing up, I had crises every time. I was in the hospital back-to-back.
“As a child, I constantly put myself in situations that made me sick. And it affected me a lot. For example, I’m not supposed to be in the rain, so what happened to me was that I would have pains in my joints from being in the rain. But I always knew that I didn’t want this thing [sickle cell] to define me.”
