Nigerian singer, Adekunle Gold, has spoken out about being harassed online after revealing he lives with sickle cell [/b]disease.
The ‘Orente’ singer revealed that he was “attacked and abused” on social media after revealing his identity.
In a recent interview with CNN, Adekunle Gold said he wanted to raise awareness about sickle cell disease [/b]after gathering the strength to speak up.
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.”
Adekunle Gold said he has been aware of his diagnosis since he was a child, adding that growing up, he constantly put himself in situations that made him sick.
“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,” he recalled.
“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.”
