So, About ItsWalela + Fighting Leukemia

TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDE MENTION

My aunt died of leukemia in Dec 2018. She never found a bone marrow match. She never heard of Be The Match. That aunt was my mom’s older sister. The rest of the family didn’t know about Be the Match either. Turns out, it allows life-saving bone marrow transplants to be found for those with cancer. Black people have a 23% chance of finding a stem cell donor. One reason is lack of knowledge about it because no one in my family knew. No doctor said it!

After Chadwick Boseman died in 2020, I was expressing how saddening it was to my mom. How he got a scholarship to acting school, yet he didn’t get access to healthcare. How there is so much going against poor black people. I told my mom what Walela posted on twitter about Chadwick Boseman and his struggle with cancer. Walela is a 26 year old light skinned black community organizer, artist, and poet. They have raised $50,000+ on their gofundme. They have a strong community around them and over 50k followers on instagram. This is a link to their twitter thread I'm quoting:

“I had to navigate my insurance, finances, bills, doctors, ALONE. I had no one to help me because I don’t have a good relationship with my family and my partner just didn’t understand. THAT is all consuming. I became so depressed & suicidal cuz I felt choiceless. It took me THREE years to merely accept my diagnosis, to figure out how to navigate my insurance and get what I needed out of racist doctors, I pushed for a bone marrow transplant on my own by handing an oncologist 17 pages of my research. It’s a JOB when you don’t have access ”

I’m glad she uses her platform to educate others on medical racism and other issues. It caused my mom and I to think about my aunt’s struggle with leukemia. One of the first things my mom said is that my aunt didn’t know to research like that. My aunt listened to her doctors. Walela made a infographic about “Tips on Navigating Doctors and The Medical Industrial Complex.” The first thing they did was learn as much as they could about their illness on their own and they documented everything. Walela said make sure to have a patient advocate. A patient advocate will support the needs of the patient so that the patient is less alone. It’s like if there’s no one to fight for you, you’re left to die. Life shouldn’t be like this. For my aunt, my mom and the rest of the family had to work. We all struggled under this capitalist system, so we couldn’t show up fully for my aunt or our own selves. My aunt was in her 60s, so I don’t think she knew much about using the internet. She also grew up in a time where quality education wasn’t given to black people. I wonder why my aunt couldn’t have gotten that mainstream attention. I wonder what could have prevented this. When I read how Walela had to deal with being depressed and suicidal while pushing for her own bone marrow transplant and writing 17 pages of research, I realize why. To have knowledge and people to advocate for your health is a privilege.

Walela also experienced housing insecurity. They knew to reach out to their community for help. They set up donations to help them move into safe housing. They even tagged different people on twitter to ask them to share their gofundme. They have an infographic on how to support them. On it they ask "send my flyer to social media influencers and encourage them to share, if you are a visual artist and would like to donate your craft to making more flyers email, feel free to send prayers, ect." As well, all the call-to-actions look so professional. It’s like a real professional photographer took their photos and a professional writer wrote it and a professional graphic designer was involved. I didn’t even know this was possible. Back when I was houseless and housing insecure, I never knew there were people willing to help me. I didn’t know who I could ask. I felt like I’m supposed to struggle and suffer alone. Walela even got attention from Kehlani and Indya Moore. In a way, it gives me hope for something better.