Award-Winning Health Journalism

UI Health Helps Teens Take Charge of Their Sickle Cell Disease

Caption: Peer patient advocates Ronisha Edwards-Elliott (left) and Ryan Cooper (right) pose with Paige Reilly, UIC professor of pediatric hematology-oncology in the College of Medicine. The three work at the S.T.A.R. Clinic, guiding adolescents with sickle cell disease.

Ryan Cooper knows firsthand how tough it is to be a teenager with sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder that can cause intense pain and organ damage. “Adolescence is already hard enough, and then you are adding a layer of having a chronic illness on top of it,” Cooper says. For more than 15 […]