MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Sickle cell disease is a red blood disorder affecting nearly 100,000 Americans. About one in 13 Black babies are born with disease.
Two sisters, Patrice Woods and Stacy Hines-Dowell, are fighting the disease in their own ways together. Woods is the big sister. Hines-Dowell is the little sister, but what may seem little by age, can actually be large in impact.
“At the age of five, I was diagnosed with sickle cell SS,” Woods said. Sickle cell is a blood cell disorder causing pain and serious health problems.
“I went in and out the hospital, emergency rooms, at home,” Woods said. “I look perfectly fine, but I can be in pain right now and you would never know it.”
“I’ve grown up seeing her battle this debilitating disease. All my life, I’ve seen her fight through this,” Hines-Dowell said.
One day, while reading the encyclopedia to her little sister, that fight took a turn. “She read that sickle cell children usually don’t live past the age of 20. When she said that, she got quiet. I said, ‘I’m going to make sure you live greater than 20,” Hines-Dowell said .
True to her word, Hines-Dowell became a nurse. She joined the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and St. Jude’s Sickle Cell Bootcamp.
“They’re teaching us things from pathophysiology to the mental health component of it,” Hines-Dowell said.
She also trains others through the program’s train the trainer model. “The goal is to be able to learn more, be more efficient, use the curriculum in the community, in the local community and also abroad,” Hines-Dowell said.
It is an education and profession that brings Woods pride. “To have a medical person in the family and you go to the doctor, you’re like I need you to treat me like my sister would treat me.”
“The strength that she has is what fuels me every day. She’s my inspiration,” said Hines-Dowell.