Gloria at 50: Service to humanity a lifestyle

Celebrations are planned for diverse reasons and are better understood by the organizers of such an epoch making events. It is no doubt moments of merriment to share good times in company of family, friends and loved ones. Such events include naming ceremonies, weddings, celebration of life, coronation or installations, birthdays, graduations, promotions, cultural festivals, burial ceremonies and or  thanksgiving services. All of these require preparations and spending of resources, JENNIFER YARIMA writes.

LAST weekend will forever remain a moment to remember as a renowned broadcast journalist, Gloria Nagun Thomas from Laling city of Mikang Local Government Area of Plateau State who has distinguished herself in this chosen career celebrated her 50th birthday in a grand style. It was not just a moment of merriment, but an avenue she used to raise awareness on the dangers of sickle cell and how it affects marriages and people’s lives. She considers her 50th birthday as very important and significant in her life.

The gift of life, family, health, friends and many others are enough reasons for this erudite broadcast journalist loved by her contemporary colleaques to be thankful for. She did not just organize the event for people to eat, drink, dance and go home, but also used the opportunity as an avenue where she unveiled a programme tagged the Media for Sickle Cell Initiative. Media Initiative for Sickle cell (MISC) is a non profitable organization that is out to increase awareness of sickle cell disease among Nigerians and the world at large. SCD is largely a disease of people of African descent, thus the need to help stem its prevalence among Nigerians and persons of African descent.

Thus, she believes that consistent and pragmatic advocacy and publicity will go a long way in helping to deal with the issue of sickle cell in the world today. There is already an appreciable level of awareness out there, but people need to do more. Doing more means knowing their genotype. When people know their genotype, they are able to make informed decisions when it comes to marriage. In Africa, Asia and the Arab nations, we have been and are still battling with this genotype issue before settling down to marry, but in America, Europe and other developed parts of the world, they have been able to curtail and control this problem, either by not marrying or not giving birth to any child at all. To have a sickle cell free nation, we must do something and we can only do this when we know.

The initiative is targeted at young people who are not yet married or still in secondary schools, knowing their genotypes and afterwards they would be told what to do and appropriate steps to take to reduce the occurrence of this deadly disease. Personal life experiences informed the decision to come up with this initiative. Gloria in her words mentioned that she had two sisters, who are late now who lived and struggled with the disease till their demise.

According to her, it was not easy seeing them passing through excruciating pains and caring for them. On some occasions, she had to go round to look for blood for them, as they lose blood sometimes. Thank God HIV cases were not so much pronounced at that time, since her brothers and dad had to donate O+ blood to the blood bank, in exchange of B+ blood to address this huge task. The victims also suffered academically because of the frequent occurrences of illnesses which took them in and out of school and so they became very inconsistent.

Anna and Justina Thomas, Gloria’s siblings went through the toughest battle of life struggling with sickle cell disease in spite of very strong support and care of the family and well meaning individuals to ensure that they survive but unfortunately they both could not make it and died at twenty one and the other at thirty two. It is unimaginable that one could go through six surgeries in four years at Bimma hospital, trying to correct the anomalies in the system, but the dreaded disease resisted the expertise of the experts.

Sickle Cell disease is a genetic condition that is present at birth. In this case, the red blood cells become hard and sticky and looks like C-shaped tool called sickle. The sickle cells die early which causes a constant shortage of red blood cells. Also, when they travel through small blood vessels, they get stuck and clog blood flow which can cause pain and other serious problems. It is inherited when a child receives two sickle beta-globins genes one from each parent. A child can therefore have sickle cell disease when both parents have at least one normal beta-globins gene.

The initiative of Gloria Thomas in setting this organization is quite commendable and its objectives to create awareness about this disease is outstanding because it affords individuals to make informed decisions and advocate for better handling and treatment of sickle warriors. The focus on young people speaks volume on her interest in raising a generation which will grow up in a world free of sickle cell disease. Most of what we suffer today is either ignorance or negligence. Reasonable young people fall in love blindly, forgetting that there are certain things that must be considered before engaging in serious relationship that might end up in marriage. Thanks to some churches who have made it mandatory for intending couples to go through compulsory test and genotype test is one of them. That is the only saving grace which many have escaped.

With the unveiling of Media Initiative for Sickle Cell that would offer free testing and counseling for young people and Nigerians as a whole, it’s a great opportunity for everyone to leverage on to know one’s genotype to save our unborn children from becoming victims. Hope is not lost for survivors as the MISC also has friendship centres or studio designed to provide safe space for survivors and their families to interact and exhale. As a media based initiative, the centre hopes to produce audio and video materials on the disease to disseminate information which will help survivors live fulfilled lives and help the society consciously work to eradicate sickle cell. Experience sharing at periodic meetings would be of immense help too.

Gloria’s 50th birthday anniversary will forever be remembered because it has left us with lingering memories of how we can individually contribute our quota toward societal development and significantly extending hands of friendship to the downtrodden among us.