Pharmacy Students Donate to Sickle Cell Center

University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Pharmacy students and their medical school counterparts have donated more than $2500 to the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System Sickle Cell Center.

First-year students held a charity auction this past fall and donated half of the proceeds to the sickle cell center, while the rest of the funds will go toward a Match day celebration, according to a UIC press release.

The students hope that their gesture toward the sickle cell center will call attention to its acute care treatment center, which helps sickle cell patients with chronic pain episodes. The donation will ideally spur other external donors to contribute funds.

“Support has not come through,” from its typical resources, noted Victor Gordeuk, professor of medicine and director of the sickle cell program, in UIC press release. With the Illinois state budget in the air, all the funds it usually receives from the Illinois Department of Public Health have not reached the center.

Meanwhile, the hospital plans to relocate the center to a new clinical decision unit, according to UIC.

Robert Molokie, a UI Health physician and assistant professor in the medical school, showed gratitude to the students for donating and said they have done a “tremendous” amount to increase awareness. He added that their donation would help improve the quality of life for more than 600 adults and 200 children.

Sickle cell disease affects 90,000 to 100,000 individuals in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It affects around 1 in every 500 African-Americans, and 1 in every Hispanic-Americans.

Some complications of sickle cell include pain, infection, eye disease, acute chest syndrome, and stroke, according to the CDC.