One Child's Story ... Camp Jumoke's 2007/8 Poster Child

Through my years at Camp Jumoke I have begun to experience sickle cell in a new way. While the physical effects of sickle cell are still solitary, the emotional effects have stopped being so lonely. At Camp Jumoke I was no longer the only person with an illness. I lived in a cabin for two weeks with other kids who take medication, have pain, and stay at the hospital for what could be long periods of time. I was no longer alone. These were people who needed no explanation about why I wasn?t allowed to swim. They had probably been subjected to extreme layers when winter came along, for their own health, and understood the frustration that came along with missing a lot of school. Camp Jumoke has become a safe haven for me, where I?m not necessarily sick, just special. 

I feel that as the poster child for Camp Jumoke I could help and lend my time to a place that to make me feel happy and normal it has given its time and energy.
I have had sickle cell for my entire life, and since there is no cure I will probably die with it. It is the only life I have ever known. While I may be able to take hydromorphine to alleviate the pain, or hydroxyurea to end the pain, that just deals with the physical effects of sickle cell. Camp Jumoke allows me to go beyond that.

The parts of Camp that are ingrained in my mind are the times when we would all sit around the porch in the morning or evening waiting for our medications. The times that someone would be in pain and everyone would go help and ask how they were doing. What struck me the most is how when someone was is pain, none of the other kids would treat them with pity or view them as being weak, which can happen with some people unconsciously, but would treat them with sympathy and compassion that can only come from the someone who is completely immersed in the world of sickle cell. At home I am the only with sickle cell. My brother is completely healthy, my father, an immigrant form Africa, didn? t know he had the trait until he married my mother, and though my mother has had a brother die from complications with sickle cell, she only has the trait. I am the only person in my immediate family who has a box full of medication, a calendar full of appointments to Sick Kids, and who misses a lot of school because of intense pain. The experience at Camp Jumoke opened up a whole new world for me, where instead of being an anomaly or different, I was the normal one.

The thing that I think scares a lot of new campers and more likely their parents (my mother was definitely one of those parents!) is the fact that since these are sick children what will happen if they get sick. I have personally been almost every time I have been to Camp Jumoke. All except one of those times have sent me to Sick Kids. Most of the time we could be dealt with in the facilities at the camp. That freedom that comes with being able to do what regular campers do, within reason, is one of the things I love most about being at Camp Jumoke. 

Most of the things I do there my mother would never allow me to do at home. For example I went kayaking. My mother would have had a heart attack had she been there. She would have been thinking of packing my bags for the hospital trip we would have been sure to take. While I was kayaking I was excited. I never would have thought I would be able to do it and I had no pain afterwards. I would have never been kayaking if it wasn't for Camp Jumoke. It was activities like that, that had me excited the entire two weeks I was there. 
Being a camper allowed me experiences that I wouldn't have been given the chance to in the city. Though there were restrictions to our fun, for example morning dip, a part of Camp that everyone but the Camp Jumoke campers had to participate in. These were reasonable restraints that were put in place to ensure our health, and to prevent us from feeling excruciating pain. Everyone went along with without any complaint, though that may have had to do with the fact that this rule was stopping us from going in the extremely cold, extremely dirty lake early in the morning. At Camp Jumoke I was able to have fun while staying relatively pain free.

Right now I am at the age where I will soon become an adult. To me adulthood doesn't mean voting rights. It means no more privileges at Sick Kids. No more Dr. Kirby or Doris. It means being thrust into a world where I will have to take more responsibility for my illness, and my mother may not be able to rub my back for me when I'm sick. 

This year I will be doing my applications for university, where the deciding factor for my decision will have to take in to account my health. It also means that I won't be able to partake in the two weeks of fun that has become a staple to an enjoyable summer. I won't be able to see the lasting friends that I have made at Camp Jumoke over the years. Next year will probably be my last year at Camp Jumoke, but that doesn't mean that I will forgot the names of the people I have met, medication time at the Medshed, or even the events done throughout the year for Camp Jumoke. Camp jumoke has given me a lot of opportunities and experience that I will never forget.

Being a poster child for Camp Jumoke would mean that I was able to give back to the organization that has given me so much. Camp Jumoke has given a different outlook on my illness and has allowed me to feel more of a group than alone.
This organization has not only helped countless others, but others that I know and can put names and faces on. I don't think that I can fully express the gratitude I feel towards Camp Jumoke for what they have done for me. What I can do though, is do as much as I possibly can. It is through Camp Jumoke that I don't feel alone anymore and that is something that I will always be thankful for.--- Neneh-Iye Bundu