Former Mandeville resident gives back to Sickle Cell Charity/Jamaica.

By Aubrey Campbell

CELEBRATION TIME. Tariq (bottom, right) and his family (mom, Tricia top right), at his parent’s wedding anniversary celebration in NYC in 2019.

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NEW YORK, NY. Wednesday, April 1, 2020 -- A ray of hope was recently delivered to the Sickle Cell Support Foundation of Jamaica (SCFJ), in the form of a check donation from the Sattar family of New York, USA.

The donation represents proceeds from a global, online effort and will benefit the work of the Foundation on behalf of children in Jamaica impacted by the disease, which according to Camille Daley, affects 1 in every 150 babies born in Jamaica and 15 percent of the population is at risk of having a child with sickle cell disease. 

“We are very grateful to Mrs. Sattar for her philanthropic ‘GoFundMe’ efforts to pay it forward in the honor of her son and his successful recovery from the bone marrow transplant surgery. It was a wonderful initiative and we greatly appreciate her generous donation, which will go a far way in improving the lives of sickle cell patients in Jamaica”.

In a heartfelt note of thanks, Daley who co-founded the non-profit, voluntary SCSFJ nearly three decades ago, offered that the organization will continue to support patients and families, heighten public awareness of the disease while promoting self-reliance among affected families.

Tricia Sattar (formerly White), migrated to New York over more than 20 years ago. She lived in Mandeville, Manchester and attended Bishop Gibson High School.

Tricia is married with 3 children – 2 boys and a girl. Her middle child Tariq was born with sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder that causes severe pain, fatigue and anemia.

The gene for sickle cell anemia is inherited from both parents for the illness to occur in children and a bone marrow transplant is the only cure for this disease at the moment.

No one in Tariq’s family was a match so his parents put his name in the blood bank and in December 2017, they received the news that a match was found in Germany and in January 2018, Tariq had a successful bone marrow transplant and was cured of his sickle cell disease.

Thankfully, today Tariq is healthy and happy, and life is back to normal! He is an honor student in Junior High School, plays competitive basketball, piano and violin. Tariq collaborates with the Sickle-Cell Awareness Foundation Corp Int’l., and attends events in New York to bring awareness to sickle cell disease and the bone marrow transplant process. He enjoys attending sickle cell events to talk about his experiences.

To pay it forward, Tariq’s family decided to create a ‘Go Fund Me’ page and collected over US$3,000 on behalf of the Sickle Cell Support Foundation of Jamaica.

Support for the initiative was heartening and included many persons from Jamaica and abroad. They hope the donation will help other children in Jamaica with medicine and other assistance to improve the lives of other children living with this disease in Jamaica.

“One thing Tariq will tell you, when he had the sickle cell disease, he had a bigger appetite but for some reason, now that he is part Jamaican, Guyanese, American and now German – he doesn’t quite eat as much as before”, noted a relieved mom, Tricia.

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