May5Foundation

11/04/2026

04/04/2026

🥳 Please join us in wishing a Happy Birthday to Warrior Jemela !🎂Melo Jae

Jemela shows up for the sickle cell community and advances conversations around mental health, chronic pain, and lived experience. Her voice has reached national platforms.

Through her lived experience, Jemela brings a level of understanding to sickle cell disease. Her ability to connect, advocate, and lead ensures that the needs of Warriors and their families matter.




🥳 🎂

04/04/2026

This Easter, we are reminded that even in the darkest moments, hope rises again.

To every person living with sickle cell disease and dealing with grief, loss and trauma, your strength is extraordinary. Every day you face battles that many cannot see, yet you continue to rise - with courage, resilience, and grace. Your life is powerful, meaningful, and full of purpose.

To the caregivers - parents, partners, siblings, health workers - you are the quiet heroes. Your love, patience, and unwavering support are a light in moments of pain and uncertainty. You are not unnoticed, and you are deeply appreciated.

Easter teaches us that pain is not the end of the story. There is renewal. There is healing. There is hope.

May this season fill your hearts with:
✨ Strength for each new day
✨ Courage in every challenge
✨ Peace in moments of struggle
✨ And unshakable hope for the future

You are not alone. You are seen. You are loved. And together, we keep rising.

Happy Easter 🌼

02/04/2026

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. A day that encourages the awareness of autism, promotes the acceptance, appreciation and inclusion of autistic individuals. This is the beginning of World Autism Awareness Month, an observance which serves a similar purpose.

We are blessed to know a truly amaysing autistic guy. Forever our favorite Autism Warrior Nicholas Gordon.

We love Nicholas and his amaysing caregiver mom Catherine Gordon.

Catherine Gordon is the real MVP for Autism Awareness, and a real superhero Mom!

02/04/2026

Sickle Cell patients frequently face systemic bias, discrimination, and stigmatization in healthcare settings, leading to significantly undertreated pain and poorer health outcomes. Implicit biases, particularly in emergency departments, result in longer wait times (sometimes 70+ minutes over guidelines), accusations of "drug-seeking" behavior, and dismissal of chronic pain as fabricated.

Key Aspects of Bias in SCD Care

Pain Dismissal: Providers often minimize or doubt the severity of severe pain crises, leading to delayed or insufficient analgesia.

"Drug-Seeking" Stigma: Patients are often unfairly labeled as drug-addicted, with their familiarity with their own treatment needs viewed as a red flag rather than expert knowledge.

Delayed Treatment: Patients with SCD wait longer to receive pain medication compared to those with other pain-related conditions, often due to racial biases and structural racism in healthcare.

Lack of Specialized Care: There is a scarcity of trained professionals and a lack of standardized, specialized care, particularly in rural or emergency settings.

Systemic Neglect: Misinformation, lack of education, and deep-seated, often unconscious, biases contribute to a culture where SCD patients are not treated with the same urgency as other patients.

Impact on Patients

Physical Harm: Delayed care leads to increased organ damage and increased risk of stroke.

Mental Health Decline: Discrimination causes significant emotional distress, including anxiety, depression, and self-stigma.

Mistrust: Disrespectful treatment fosters deep mistrust of medical providers, leading to disengagement from necessary care.

01/04/2026

Please keep Ja’Michael in your prayers. His sickle cell has caused a crisis resulting in a hospital stay, high blood pressure and vomiting.
We know that prayer works and will help him to get better and go home 🥹.

🙏🏾

01/04/2026

Amaysing Kids provides grieving youth in our community an outlet to express their grief, trauma and loss.

Our vision is to create supportive peer spaces for children and teens who are navigating the loss of someone important in their lives.

That may include a:
• parent
• sibling
• grandparent
• caregiver
• friend
• or another loved one

Grief can feel incredibly isolating, especially for young people.

Our hope is to build spaces where they feel understood, supported, and less alone.

While our primary focus is supporting children after a death, we also recognize that young people can experience deep grief after other significant losses too.

If you know a child, teen, or family who could benefit from this kind of support, we hope you’ll follow along and share our mission .

31/03/2026

Medical bias against sickle cell disease (SCD) patients is a well-documented issue where racial prejudice, stigma, and misconceptions about pain management lead to inadequate care, specifically in emergency departments. Patients frequently report being labeled "drug-seeking," experiencing long wait times for pain medication, and facing dismissive attitudes from providers, which often leads to severe health disparities.

Key aspects of medical bias in SCD include:

Pain Mismanagement: SCD pain is often underestimated, dismissed, or treated with suspicion. Patients, who are primarily of Black or African descent, frequently have their pain discounted, which can result in severe, untreated vaso-occlusive crises.

Stigma of Addiction: Healthcare professionals often hold negative attitudes towards SCD patients, perceiving them as addicted to pain medication (e.g., opioids) needed for their condition.

Racial and Implicit Bias: The bias is often rooted in systemic racism and lack of education/knowledge among clinicians. Studies show that children with SCD often wait longer to receive pain medication compared to other patients with similar pain levels.

Long-Term Impact: This bias causes patients to feel marginalized and, in some cases, hesitant to seek care, leading to poorer long-term health outcomes and premature death.

30/03/2026

Today, on National Doctor’s Day, we extend our deepest appreciation to all doctors and researchers, but especially to our extraordinary doctors that contribute to the success of the May5foundation research, awareness and clinical trials. Your dedication, expertise, and compassion touch countless lives daily, making a profound difference in our sickle cell community.
Thank you Dr.Jackson, Dr. Cuevas, Dr. Brown, Dr. Mays, Dr. Azir, Dr. Jacob, Dr. Gupta, Dr. Hill and Dr. Boeteng for your tireless commitment to healing and caring for others.
Your selfless service epitomizes the noble spirit of healthcare!

26/03/2026

Emergency Room Bias is real.🚨

Studies continue to show that Black patients with Sickle Cell Disease often wait longer for pain medication compared to others.

Let that sit for a moment.

Sickle Cell pain is not mild discomfort. It can be severe, life-threatening, and requires urgent treatment. Yet too many Warriors are:

• Told to “wait”
• Accused of exaggerating pain
• Labeled as drug-seeking
• Left in crisis longer than necessary

Bias in medicine is not history.
It is happening right now.

When pain is delayed: • Crises get worse
• Hospital stays get longer
• Complications increase
• Mental health suffers
• Trust in healthcare breaks down

What should change?

✔ Believe patients when they say they are in pain
✔ Follow fast pain-treatment protocols
✔ Train ER staff specifically on Sickle Cell crises
✔ Remove stereotypes from medical decision-making
✔ Hold systems accountable for delays

Every Warrior deserves fast, fair, and respectful care.

This is not about special treatment.
It is about equal treatment.

23/03/2026

Thankful and Grateful for Everyone that supports our blood donation efforts! There is NO universal cure with access for all sickle cell patients, blood transfusions are what many sickle cell patients rely on. Blood transfusions for sickle cell patients increase the number of normal red blood cells while reducing the proportion of sickle hemoglobin (HbS), which improves oxygen delivery throughout the body and reduces blood viscosity. This helps treat or prevent severe complications, including acute chest syndrome, stroke, and severe anemia.

The Gift of Life is Priceless!!