A woman who lost two sisters to a blood disorder has been able to use the poetry which helped her grieve to donate money to families battling the disease.
Adesayo Talabi, a successful performance poet, has decided to give back to those affected by both the cost of living crisis and sickle cell anaemia, which causes abnormalities to the body’s blood cells.
Following the death of her sister Elizabeth who passed away shortly before her 10th birthday after being left with only two percent blood in her body, Adesayo, now 25, says she was left ‘heartbroken.’
Her other sister, whom she was named after, also tragically died at six months old from what is suspected to be the same condition which mainly affects people from African and Caribbean backgrounds.
But during her grief, Adesayo says she used the art form as a way to "express herself", as she still recites the poems she wrote at her sister's gravestone.
Now, she says that the writing which helped her through is "paying the bills", and has put her in a position to donate to ten families as she is now close to her goal of reaching £5000.
Adesayo said: “Once when my sister passed, the way that I expressed myself was through writing.
"So I wrote a piece for her that I recite whenever I go to visit her headstone back in Luton when might well I grew up or where my family are."
Adesayo says she became passionate about sickle cell and was determined to raise awareness.
She said: "I've always cared about [sickle cell]. I've always been passionate about it since the passing of my sister.
“My sister Elizabeth passed away when she was nine, a few months before her tenth birthday, due to complications with sickle cell.
“She had about two percent left in her body and that broke my heart and that was the reason why I started donating blood.
But prior to losing her sister, Adesayo says she learned she had another sibling born before her, who her parents believed also died of sickle cell.
Adesayo said: “I had an older sister who passed away when she was six-months-old, before I was born.
“My parents suspected it was sickle cell because when she was younger [in Nigeria] she showed all of the signs of a child with sickle cell.
“But during that time it wasn't common knowledge in Nigeria.”
Adesayo is one out of eight siblings of whom two passed away and her younger sister Rebecca also suffers from sickle cell.
She said: “My younger sister Rebecca lives with sickle cell anaemia but fortunately, she’s managing well.
“We're a lot more educated as a family about the condition and we know for signs to look out for, for her.
“It was a bittersweet kind of death for my sister Elizabeth, my other sister because it was through her death that my family became closer as well our understanding of sickle cell being furthered and being a bit better for the sake of Rebecca.”
Adesayo says she wants to help others suffering with the disease during the cost of living crisis and with Christmas two days away.
She said: “I wanted to give the money because I know a lot of people are struggling. There’s a cost of living crisis, energy bills, a lot of people on strikes, and it's just a lot.
“It's something that I'm very sensitive toward so whenever I see anyone with sickle cell, anything to do with sickle cell, it's always something that tugs on my heart.”
“I’m trying to make sure I get it to people before Christmas, before the holidays, so they can use it for what they need to use it for this season.”
Adesayo says she has given the money from her 2own pocket" but after sharing her initiative on Twitter, she was left “amazed” by offers from other people wanting to donate.
She said: “A lot of it's out of my own pocket but because of the amount of traction that the tweet and the post was getting, I had people asking to donate as well.
“I've had people donating into my business PayPal account and I've just been sending money to charities.
“It's been amazing. I've had people donating how much they can donate from donations of £10, £40 to £500.”
Adesayo says she hopes to open sickle cell clinics in Africa and the UK.
She said: "My life goal is to set up sickle cell clinics all over the [African] continent as well as the UK. Until I'm able to do that at the scale which I want to, I’m just doing what I can in the meantime.
"When I went to university when I did my undergraduate course and that's when I did my first open mic, and it was an amazing experience.
"A few years after my first open mic night, I was doing my Masters last year and that was when I decided that I wanted to go back into performance poetry."
But after the Covid pandemic hit, the UK was sent into lockdown which forced Adesayo to take her poetry online and shortly after posting on social media, her video went viral.
She said: “I've been really blessed. I've been really fortunate to be able to monetize from that.
“I've been fortunate enough to be in this position that I'm in, whereby I can give to a community that I care so deeply about."
Adesayo donated to the Sickle Cell Society in the UK who said they were “grateful” for her support.
A spokesperson for the charity said: “The Sickle Cell Society is extremely grateful to people like Adesayo who support the work of our charity, and who are committed to raising awareness of this often marginalised and misunderstood condition.
“There are around 17,500 people living with sickle cell disease in the UK and it’s our fasted-growing genetic disorder.
“The Society’s work supporting individuals and families, collaborating on research into increased and better treatments, and encouraging more Black heritage blood donors to come forward to provide ethnically matched blood for those with sickle cell is vital to ensuring that everyone affected by this serious condition has access to the quality care and support they need.
“We encourage people to find out more about the Sickle Cell Society, including how to make a donation to our work and how to register as a blood donor at: www.sicklecellsociety.org “
