ADEKUNLE GOLD REVEALS ONGOING BATTLE WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE

Adekunle Gold has opened up about his ongoing battle with sickle cell disease, saying he still experiences painful health crises even as an adult. According to him, his first major crisis happened when he was about five years old. He said his mum had to carry him on her back to the hospital in the middle of the night while his dad wasn’t home. He’s been on medication ever since. “I still have crises,” he said. “When we talk about a crisis, it’s pain in your joints, your legs, and sometimes your stomach. It’s really crazy.” He added that while the attacks are now less frequent than when he was younger, they haven’t fully gone away. He credits better self-care and access to treatment for keeping things under control.The 38-year-old artist also addressed rumours that he did a bone marrow transplant to ‘cure’ it. He denied that and said people on the internet talk “with so much confidence about what they don’t know.” Beyond talking about his own story, Adekunle Gold used the moment to push awareness. He told Nigerians to take genotype seriously before getting married, because two people with incompatible genotypes can pass sickle cell to their child and lock that child into a lifetime of pain. “Knowing your genotype is very important,” he said. “A lot of people still don’t understand the risks.” He said he wants to “make more noise” about it, not just as a celebrity moment, but so fewer kids are born into a situation where every fever could become an emergency and every joint pain might mean another night in the hospital. For him, this is personal — not PR. He’s lived it.