Sickle Cell Sufferer Gets Wish: Computer

A 15-year-old Moorpark High School student who suffers from sickle cell anemia has a new computer system, thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Tri-Counties.

Tracey Wilson was an active, seemingly healthy girl who loved handball and kickball. Then one day in the winter of 1994, while playing handball with her cousin, she felt weak.

“I got tired and went inside, and I wanted to stay inside,” she said.

Her sluggishness continued into summer, and Tracey’s condition was eventually diagnosed as two diseases--lupus, which causes abnormalities of the blood vessels and the connective tissues, and sickle cell anemia, a congenital, chronic disorder that causes the red blood cells to become sickle-shaped due to lack of oxygen.

Although both diseases can be life-threatening, many patients keep the diseases under control with medication and changes in diet and day-to-day activities.

Tracey was hospitalized in January and has been homeschooling since, but she hopes to be well enough to return to school next year. Someday, she would like to enter the medical profession.

“I guess I have the attitude I’ve got the disease and I’ve got to live with it,” she said.

“There is no cure for sickle cell anemia. All I can do is drink a lot of water to keep my blood flowing. That’s what keeps me from going into crisis.”

Tracey said her mother, Joyce Vincent-Wilson, has been her best friend and helper since the diagnosis.

“You just have to be there for her all the time,” said Vincent-Wilson, 49, who along with her sister, Pamela, and cousin, Ted Cooper, sings in the gospel group Family of Faith. “I just have to make sure she does the things she’s supposed to do.”

The Santa Barbara-based Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Tri-Counties granted 40 wishes last year and expects to fulfill 46 in 1997. Wish granters Christina Samayoa of Moorpark and Ed and June Loftus of Simi Valley helped fulfill Tracey’s wish with assistance from Circuit City of Newbury Park, which gave a $500 discount on an IBM-clone computer package and work station.

Samayoa, 24, said she got involved with the foundation as a way to “do something good and do something right.” The City Commerce Bank employee said she grants about one wish per month.

“I do it because I know there are worse things in life than my little problems,” she said.

Tracey said she has no doubt the computer system will be put to good use.

“There was a lot of stuff I had to do on the computer for school, and I was using my next-door neighbor’s computer. And I was getting sick of that,” she said.

To make a donation of cash or in-kind gifts to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, call (888) 899-9474. Any business willing to provide computers at reduced prices should call 681-1644.