Laurens native and mother Erica Hunter has lived with sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder that affects roughly 100,000 people in the U.S., her whole life.
Diagnosed at 2 years old, Hunter grew up in and out of the hospital due to complications with the disease.
Sickle cell disease is an inherited red blood cell disorder in which there are not enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. People affected by the disease need blood with specific antigens to help their red blood cell count.
Many sickle cell patients endure periodic pain episodes called pain crises. These episodes can last for days at a time or just a few hours. But the most severe cases require hospitalization and many require monthly blood transfusions to stave off frequent pain crises and other complications.
This was the case for Hunter, who started receiving eight to 10 pints of blood every three weeks in 2017 after suffering a stroke from an ongoing pain crisis.
But when the pandemic scared many blood donors away from normal donation centers and community blood drives, the country saw its worst blood shortage in over 30 years.
Hunter was forced to ration her monthly transfusions, only receiving three to four pints of blood every 6 to 8 weeks.
Now Hunter is calling on people in South Carolina, especially those in the Black community which the disease predominantly affects, to consider donating blood on a regular basis.
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