Aishah Akorede has been open about her health condition, Sickle Cell Disease, since joining Dancing with the Stars earlier this year.
She opened up about how her illness has made training more difficult at times, in fact, she says just before joining the show she spent time in hospital.
Speaking about building stamina for the competition, she tells VIP Magazine: “At the beginning, I was deceased! But to be honest I just built up the strength and the resilience. That’s the reality of life.
“When you start something new it’s so hard, but as you keep going and keep progressing, that’s how you get stronger. At the start it was tough but I can do it! When I was first going into the show that’s what I was most terrified of, that I wouldn’t be able to keep up. And I kept up, all the way to the semi-final.”
While we’ve been loving her optimism and dance moves during the competition, we’ve also loved how she has taken the massive platform to raise awareness about her illness.
Sickle Cell Disease affects 8 million people worldwide, however, it’s not something widely talked about.
“When I mention Sickle Cell, I hear people around me whisper, ‘What’s that?’ There are a lot of different illnesses that people wouldn’t know. It’s unseen, it’s harder to know,” she admits.
“But I think the main thing is for people just to be kind to everybody. You genuinely never know what anybody else is going through. I hope it starts a conversation about that.
“Please be kind. Kindness means everything in this world. I hope I can continue to raise awareness about it, I’ve been raising awareness with Recrowned for years. I want to keep doing that, hopefully on a larger, on a national scale!”
Dancing with the Stars continues on Sunday at 6:30pm on RTÉ One
