THE EDITOR, Sir:IT IS very pleasing to see and know of the good work that the Sickle Cell Clinic at the University Hospital is doing and, more importantly, the role that the Sickle Cell Support Club (SSSC) has adopted.
I must also applaud the wonderful effort that the Jamaican Gleaner is doing in regards to educating the Jamaican people about sickle cell disease. I am a 32-year-old male currently residing in the USA, and used to regularly attend the sickle cell clinics at the University Hospital. Upon reading the article about Mr. Coombs, and the information that was put forward by the SSSC, I must say I am very pleased to see that, like myself, Mr. Coombs has not allowed the disease to keep him down.
I recently graduated with my Master's of Science degree in Soil Science from the Prairie View A&M University in Texas, where I also completed my Bachelor's of Science in Agronomy. Before that I attended the College of Agriculture in Portland where I got my Associate of Science in General Agriculture. I must say that living with sickle cell disease is a very trying thing but most important of all is that one must learn to understand and educate oneself about the disease.
Illness has been a major part of my life, even though I have never given it the pleasure of keeping me down for too long. I look forward to going from strength to strength and hope that one day I will be able to give back to helping fellow sicklers and the general public on the role they can play in getting past sickle cell and looking toward living a normal life. I would personally recommend that the Ministry of Education along with the Ministry of Health make sickle cell disease education a part of the general science curriculum in schools to broaden the scope of education of our children who will grow to make the necessary adjustments in life to lessen the advent of sickle cell disease in Jamaica and to dispel some of the myths associated with sickle cell.
I am, etc.,
LAWRENCE BROWN
lab0730@hotmail.com
P.O. Box 913, Prairie View, Texas
