Adekunle Gold been attacked for opening up on living with sickle cell disease

Nigerian singer, Adekunle Gold, has spoken out about being harassed online after revealing he lives with sickle cell disease.

He said, “I want people living with sickle cell to feel safe, to feel like they have help and support.

“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.

“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.”