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[1] September is sickle cell awareness month, and we want to highlight this disorder from a fresh perspective.
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[2] You likely know someone with sickle cell, according to the CDC 1 in 13 black or African-American babies in the US are born with a sickle cell trait.
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cell disease have a life expectancy more than 20 years shorter than average, but there's some hope, one woman Patricia McGill has defied the odds.
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[4] She is among the oldest people living with the disease, early today's Fredlyn Pierre Louis spoke with Patricia.
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[5] How was it for you growing up with sickle cell? - Sickle cell wasn't prominent, and maybe people knew about it, but when I was 13, doctor took blood test, and told my mother and me that I had sickle cell anemia.
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[6] Well I started researching at 13, and one of the first things I found out was that most sickle cell patients don't live to be 40.
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[7] I decided that if I was only going to live to be about 30, which is what I thought initially that I was going to live it up.
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[8] For you, what's been the key to live a long and healthy life? - I probably drank a gallon of water a day, and that helped tremendously, and then I got smart enough to get into nutrition, and nutrition has made world the differ, I really think that the nutrition is the reason that I'm still here.
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[9] What advice would you give to other people living with sickle cell? - One of the things I have found over the years that sickle cell people do is hide, they don't want people to know they have sickle cell, I think that's a great mistake.
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[10] Because when people understand what you are going through and what's happening to you, they're more apt to⁽¹⁾ be able to help. - And thanks to Fredlyn Pierre Louis for that report.