Walk-a-thon special for new Madison residents

The Sickle Cell Walk-a-thon will take place on June 1 in Big Spring Park. (CONTRIBUTED)

By Aldo Amato

Staff Reporter
MADISON — A walk-a-thon sponsored by the North Alabama Sickle Cell Foundation will have a profound effect on a new family to the Madison area.

Darnita Bailey just recently moved to Madison from Chattanooga with her husband and daughter Elani. Since birth, Elani has suffered from a painful disease that affects around 100,000 Americans, sickle cell anemia.
“There is no such thing as a regular childhood illness,” Darnita Bailey said. “Things have gotten a lot better with treatments but it is still a painful disease.”

Bailey, who has the sickle cell trait, said she had a 25 percent chance of passing it on to her daughter. According to webmd.com, “sickle cell disease is caused by a genetic abnormality in the gene for hemoglobin, which results in the production of sickle hemoglobin.” The disease is not contagious but Bailey said it sometimes is hard for her daughter during the school year.

“She is able to go to school like every other kid,” Bailey said. “But sometimes, especially during the winter, she will have to take absences due to the cold weather. It makes the blood constrict and she will be susceptible to getting sick due to a weakened immune system. So she has an individual development plan.”

Bailey said Elani often has to take hydrocodone for the pain and undergoes treatment monthly for the disease that many Americans are not aware of and added that the walk-a-thon should help raise awareness in both the African-American community and the entire county.

“I think people are not aware of how debilitating the disease is,” she said. “Many people of color have the sickle cell trait and I think this will be a great way to raise awareness.”

The North Alabama Walk-a-thon will take place June 1 at Big Spring Park in downtown Huntsville at 9:00 a.m. For more information, visit sicklecellna.org/walk-a-thon.html.