ABOUT THE FOUNDATION

Contact: Baba@emc3.com.ng

Website: http://www.therichardcokerfoundation.com/

ABOUT THE FOUNDATION

The Richard Coker Foundation (RCF) is a non-profit organisation whose aim is with specific regard to helping underprivileged children in urban areas and aiding in the eradication of the Sickle Cell Anaemia Disease. Therefore our aims and goals are:

• To help underprivileged children and young adults in urban areas internationally.
• To support research into curing the disease.
• To help those with the disease along with their families.
• To raise awareness of the disease across all Cultures as a whole.

This in turn will help preserve the memory, love, generosity and life of the late, beloved and talented Film Director/Artist Richard Coker-Enahoro. Richard passed away after a long battle against Leukaemia at the age of 32 in May 2004 – a victim of Sickle Cell Anaemia.

The Foundation was established in 2004 by Julie Coker (Mother of Richard Coker-Enahoro), Baba-Jallah Epega & many dear family and friends. We are dedicated to providing education, screening and counselling programs for Sickle Cell and other abnormal haemoglobin.  The Foundation has a deep-rooted commitment to making strides in educating all communities (especially the African-Caribbean) by helping , especially, the Sickle Cell Society www.sicklecellsociety.org  via the Media machine(Awareness) & Events (Fundraising); monitoring the occurrence of Sickle Cell, improving the quality of life for those with the disease and cooperating with individuals and institutions conducting research in Great Britain & abroad . This would lead to better care, understanding and the kind of pervasive support for families living with Sickle Cell Disease. Our ultimate goal is to help find a cure & pave the way for access to this for those with the Sickle Cell Disease. Some predict that a cure may be found in the next quarter century. Hope is growing as researchers continue to make strides and a combination of medicine, lifestyle changes and counselling makes life easier for people to deal with Sickle Cell Disease.

We hope to help strengthen initiative to focus on test programme awareness of the trait in adults & help those living with Sickle Cell Disease to pursue and attain their goals via their talents in society today. So, while we search for a cure; we hope through The Richard Coker Foundation to continue to work to educate, support, serve and advocate those living with Sickle Cell Disease.

What is Sickle Cell??

Sickle cell disorder is an inherited condition of the red blood cells. The serious form of this disorder is known as Sickle Cell Anaemia. Other disorders include Cooley’s anaemia, haemoglobin SC and haemoglobin SD disease. Normal red blood cells are round like doughnuts, and they move through small blood tubes in the body to deliver oxygen. Sickle red blood cells become hard, sticky and sickle shape. When these hard and pointed red cells go through the small blood tube, they clog blood flow and break apart. This can cause pain, tissue damage and a low blood count, or anaemia.

You inherit the abnormal haemoglobin from parents if both are carriers of the sickle cell trait.  The abnormal haemoglobin can also be inherited if one of your parents has sickle cell disease. Sickle cell disease is not contagious. You are born with the sickle cell haemoglobin and it is present for life.

Sickle Cell Anaemia is a disorder that appears in many forms and affects many nationalities. In the black population of the United States for example, 1 in every 400 individuals are affected by the serious form of the disease, Sickle Cell Anaemia. The carrier state (SICKLE CELL TRAIT) has been found in one of every 12 black Americans in the United States. Sickle cell diseases have been described in persons and their descendants from Black Africa, Greece, Italy, Middle East, Syria, Southern India, Caribbean Islands, South and Central America.