Dear Editor

Recently, a local queen show was staged and it was a bit unfortunate that Ms. Asheila Pluck did not placed in the top three. Ofcourse the judges decision is final.

It is not my intention to declare that the competition was unfairly judge, however, I will admit that I was sincerely touched by her performing talent & the message that was advocated about sickle cell patients & moreso her mother with the dreadful disease.

Now the thought popped up, was her mother the primary reason or motivating factor as to why she entered the competition? If not, I am sure she had apart to play. Ms Pluck’s advocacy during the show of the sickle disease & her mother’s personal experience was timely, explicit, touching, and to the point.

Sickle cell patients do have a very painful experience. Their lives can be like a roller coaster with the excruciating pain they endure. Today they are up and then tomorrow they are down.

We the public including the medicare practitioners need to be alot more empathetic for them. The same also applies to patients who are suffering from other dreadful chronic painful conditions. Immediate care is their only saviour… No one knows when their time will come to experience these type disease with such excruciating pains. Today for me, tomorrow may be for you.

Of course, it is extremely good news to hear that a sickle clinic will be open to accommodate these sickle cell patients. Hence primary & immediate attention can be given to them.

Other patients with frequent ongoing chronic painful conditions need to be taken into consideration also. They should be assigned an ID card so that they can get the immediate attention they need, when they arrive at the ER dept.

Thumbs up to Ms Pluck! Unfortunately, you were not a winner on the stage that night of the queen show but you certainly did justice to your percormance and for what you were advocating for and as a result, you won the hearts of many of us that night of the show.

Alex.