Positive news
The Dayton Daily News Life section on Thursdays brings you uplifting human interest news.
At first glance Awo Onwudiwe appears to be a normal 13-year-old.
Like many of her peers, she has her favorite subjects in school (French) and hobbies, including acting, singing and gymnastics. And with her contagious smile and positive attitude, Awo seems to have it all. But Awo can’t live her life exactly like many of her friends because she was born with sickle cell disease, a painful, inherited condition that is characterized by misshapen red blood cells.
“We knew Awo was going to have the disease before she was born,” said her mom, Mamle Anim, a Washington Twp. physician. “I already knew a lot about the disease and just hoped she would have an easier time with it.”
Awo did well and had few complications during the first seven years of her life, but she began to experience severe pain during her second-grade year and was hospitalized for a week. “She eventually had a blood transfusion,” Anim said.
After her hospitalization, Awo began suffering from painful episodes several times a week and would often have difficulty breathing. “I had to ask my mom for pain medication,” Awo said. “I sometimes had to wait to get what I needed.” Besides taking morphine and Vicodin for severe pain, Awo also takes daily supplements and Vitamin D, which is proven to help rebuild red blood cells.
“The pain is hard to describe, but it sort of feels like when you stub your toe and it just keeps getting worse,” Awo said. “No matter what, I try not to let my disease prevent me from doing what I want to do, and stay positive.”
At the age of 9, Awo decided to take control of her illness and medications herself. “I started learning as much as I could about sickle cell and even chose it as a topic for a project at school,” she said.
Today, Awo continues dealing with severe pain an average of about three times per month, and also knows that she could have other complications down the road, like organ damage and other infections, but she hasn’t let it stop her from enjoying life as a normal teenager. She will be entering the eighth grade at Tower Heights Middle School in the fall and plans to spend the summer with friends and family and at a special camp for children dealing with serious illnesses.
And in May, Awo had a once in a lifetime opportunity to be the honored guest at a Dayton Dragons game, run the bases and share her story before a sold-out audience. The Anthem Home Run for Life program provides children in the Dayton region this unique experience as they battle serious medical conditions.
“I’m not really a sporty girl,” Awo said. “I can’t do everything when I’m having pain, and sometimes I get upset about it. I also have to be careful about swimming in cold water and doing anything too physical.”
But she has worked hard to help her classmates, friends and extended family understand that she isn’t really that different from all of them and that sometimes she just has to take a break. “Once I’m done being sick, I can just get back to doing what I want to do,” she said.
“I really think she has done well,” said Anim. “I’ve tried to empower her and remind her this disease won’t ever go away and she just paces herself and tells us what she needs. She takes every day as it comes and I know it’s sometimes frustrating, but she is such a loving and caring person and always stands up for the underdog. Her smile is just amazing.”
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