“I hope to live to age 125” — Read the story of the 92-yr-old woman with sickle cell disorder

 

Sickle Cell Disorder is one of the most common chronic yet treatable genetic disorders in Nigeria and several other parts of the world. Millions of those who encounter this disease often have tales of woe and lamentation to tell.

Living with this disorder is the only life that Alhaja Ashiata Aduke Onikoyi-Laguda has ever known since she was born on the 1st of November, 1925.

Widely acknowledged as the oldest person with Sickle Cell Disease in the world, Madam Onikoyi-Laguda has had a fulfilled life regardless of the chronic disorder.

Alhaja Asiata Aduke Onikoyi-Laguda With antecedents in the famous Onikoyi family of Isale Eko, in the heart of Lagos, Mama Ashiata (the righteous one) is a celebrity of international repute. Unarguably one of the oldest persons living with Sickle Cell Disorder, her home is a Mecca of sorts, people coming from all over the world to pay obeisance.

As she turns 92 in a few days, the matriarch is as full of life as ever even as she remains a relentless fighter against the enervating illness. A recent encounter with the nonagenarian was a pleasant surprise. Mama Onikoyi-Laguda, as she is fondly called, was having a late morning nap when Saturday Vanguard called at her residence, a story building in the heart of Ilasamaja, a Mushin suburb on Lagos Mainland.