The St. Louis Children's Hospital Sickle Cell Disease Program team includes pediatric hematologists, a child psychologist, nurse practitioners, nurse coordinators, a social worker, a child life specialist, a school liaison, and a data manager. Together, this multi-disciplinary team provides medical care and supportive services to meet the many needs of almost 400 children with sickle cell disease and their families in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Their mission is to provide patients and their families with comprehensive, excellent healthcare, emphasizing improved quality of life and scientific advancements, to better serve those impacted by sickle cell disease. Official website

The Sickle Cell Center at the Children's Hospital of Michigan at the Detroit Medical Center has a long history of providing multidisciplinary care for sickle cell patients as well as a public education program to help identify carriers of the sickle cell gene and infants who have the disease at birth. The center also offers a Newborn Sickle Cell Screening Program. Additionally, the division sees a wide variety of disorders including Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia, Evan's Syndrome, Idiopathic Aplastic Anemia and Red Cell Membrane disorders. Official website

People with sickle cell disease can often experience chronic (long term) pain between crises. If you think this applies to you, then The Red Cell Pain Management Service is here to support you. Our Services: -Learn more about what happens in the body when pain does not go away, and some ideas about what might help -Hosted by a Clinical Psychologist, Specialist Physiotherapist and Consultant Haematologist -One to one support to learn ways to reduce the effect of pain on your life -Psychology: impact of pain on your mood, your relationships -Physiotherapy: pacing, stretching, confidence with moving Official website

As one of the leading pediatric cancer, hematology, and blood and marrow transplant programs in the country, the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is committed to developing new techniques, treatments and cures to advance research and medicine in pediatric hematology/oncology. Their rapidly growing research program includes more than 60 physician researchers in the following fields of study: -BMT -Brain tumors -Cancer survivorship -Leukemia and lymphoma -Solid tumors -Hemostasis and thrombosis -Sickle cell disease -Gene therapy -Transfusion medicine Official website

The University of Maryland Medical Center has two adult hematologists who specialize in caring for patients with sickle cell disease. These physicians see patients in the hematology clinic in Stoler Pavilion located on the first floor of the main hospital. As sickle cell disease can involve many areas of a person’s health, a comprehensive approach to care is often required. The hematologists at UMMC are joined by a multidisciplinary team of cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons, and emergency medicine physicians to facilitate coordinated care. Adult hematology at UMMC works closely with pediatric hematology to assist in a smooth transition to adult care. Treatments provided at UMMC for sickle cell disease include: -Regular examinations, including tests and immunizations -Red blood cell exchange -Bone marrow transplant (hematopoietic stem cell transplantation) -Hydroxyurea -Infusion center services location at the Coordinated Care Center (C3) -Clinical trials, in which new therapies not yet widely available are tested against standard treatments Official website

Sick Cells' mission is to elevate the voices of the sickle cell disease (SCD) community and their stories of resilience. In highlighting the grave disparities this community faces, we hope to influence decision-makers and propel change. Sick Cells envisions that this narrative work will achieve the following: -Ignite public interest making sickle cell a public health concern -Humanize SCD, which is a relatively invisible disease that affects people of many races and ethnicities -Inspire the general public, who do not typically recognize their day-to-day encounters with SCD, to advocate for SCD -Influence policy makers, educators, employers, healthcare administrators and healthcare providers to act to improve treatment and care for the SCD population -Drive research and drug development which will lead to better treatments -Empower the sickle cell community, regardless of hemoglobin type, to share their stories and know that they are not alone Official website

To carry out basic, translational and clinical research in sickle cell disease, The Sickle Cell Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill is a program created to provide comprehensive care to patients with the various sickle cell syndromes. Sickle cell disease affects approximately 100,000 people in the United States and is most prevalent in young, African American and Latino populations. Our Sickle Cell Clinical Program is staffed by professionals with a commitment to providing the best possible care to patients with sickle cell disease. The adult and pediatric sickle cell staff provides services to more than 300 adults and 250 children annually at our clinics at UNC, Chapel Hill. MISSION: -To provide excellent medical care to children and adults with sickle cell disease and related hemoglobinopathies -To carry out basic, translational and clinical research in sickle cell disease -To inform patients and their families, health care professionals and the community at large about sickle cell disease -To provide psychosocial support and advocacy for people with sickle cell disease -To analyze and improve on the health services systems within which medical care is delivered to children and adults with sickle cell disease Official website

During our first 50 years, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) has created the first and only not-for-profit sibling donor cord blood program in the world. We achieved the first cure of alpha thalassemia major in North America, and house the most comprehensive sickle cell disease and thalassemia centers worldwide. CHORI has the largest resource of recombinant DNA libraries across the globe, and provided 85 percent of the genes cloned for the Human Genome Project. Over 50 children have been cured of debilitating blood diseases or cancers through our innovative transplantation research program. We established the Children's Global Health Initiative to provide a venue for the medical and scientific world to collaborate in alleviating the suffering of the world's children. Within CHORI’s eight research centers, CHORI investigators probe all aspects of health and wellness, including asthma, birth defects, cancer, cardiac disease prevention, childhood obesity and diabetes, iron metabolism, HIV/AIDS, sickle cell anemia, and mechanisms of immunity and bacterial proliferation. Official website

#BoldLipsForSickleCell (Now Bold Plus+) began when the Founder, Shamonica Wiggins, viewed a fellow warrior, Shameka McFarland, video challenging those with Sickle Cell to come up with an awareness challenge for Sickle Cell. She shares her same passion for sickle cell and also feel we needed an awareness challenge. Once the idea was pitched, Co Founder, Jewel Darbone loved the idea and ran with it. Her quick action is a big reason that it took off in the way that it did. Shortly after her help Kenny Thompson, Shaquansia Love, Brianna Capers and Shameka McFarland all agreed to be apart of the bold lips team and do whatever necessary to make it a success. Shortly after it was started, our Founder was contacted by representatives for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America because they were receiving phone calls asking about the challenge. Luckily that phone call led to the SCDAA supporting #BoldLipsForSickleCell and using it as the official awareness campaign to gain signatures for the petition to reauthorize the Sickle Cell Treatment Act. So far we have been pretty successful. Tionne “T Boz” Watkins, a singer with Sickle Cell, supported the challenge very early on. Monica Brown and Jordin Sparks, also singers have supported the challenge. Official website

The Sickle Cell Foundation of the River Region was formed as a non-profit organization on December 9th, 1981 out of the humanitarian concern for Sickle Cell Disease in the Greater Montgomery Area. These individuals believed that an organization armed with dedication, perseverance of goals and a high degree of professionalism could enlist community support for eliminating Sickle Cell Disease. The Foundation’s services have since been expanded to nine counties; Autauga, Butler, Chambers, Coffee, Crenshaw, Elmore, Lowndes, Montgomery and Tallapoosa. Since then, the foundation has continued to measure its progress by the implementation of three standards: -Promoting public awareness of the Sickle Cell Trait and Sickle Cell Disease -Providing community education concerning the seriousness of Sickle Cell Disease and the need for early detection -Offering counseling to people identified as having the Sickle Cell Trait or Sickle Cell Disease Official website