Elijah Powell was determined to live his life fully, to achieve his goals in spite of his sickle cell diagnosis. He was known for declaring: “I have sickle cell, but sickle cell doesn’t have me.”
On Jan. 14, early in the morning, Powell died due to complications from his sickle cell disease. He turned 25 two days before his death.
He described the pain crisis as “beating you with a bat, or setting you on fire, and you can’t do anything,” and said it was hard having sickle cell because of how the condition depleted his body.
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