Registration is now open for the 2025 SCD Policy Forum!

Learn More and Register

Shalathiel

Home / Faces of SCD / Shalathiel

“I went and talked to the teachers. She ended up with such good friends, and the teachers were just so good. Sometimes they would call and say, ‘She’s been laying her head on the desk,’ and I’ll say, ‘I know she hasn’t been feeling well [for] sometime.’ But I knew there wasn’t no point just to ask her to stay home because she’d say, ‘No, I’m going to school.’

Image

They’d call me and say, ‘she’s on the cot in the nurse’s office.’ I’d say, ‘okay, well is she ready to come home yet?’ They said, ‘we’ll let you speak to her.’ She’d say ‘No. I’m going back to class. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ Sometimes she’d say yeah, and I would rush and get her.

She ended up being one of those people, ‘I can do anything.’ Love that. She’s one of those people who can and who will do all that she can do. She’s no different than anybody else. She just happens to have [sickle cell disease].”

– Salathiel, mother of Shealtiel, an adult with SCD

Stay in the Know

Sign up for our newsletter!