SAGINAW, Mich. — Elijah Dottery spent months at a time at a children’s hospital in Ann Arbor battling sickle cell anemia and its complications. Now 11 years old and out of the hospital, he is turning a collection of barely-worn shoes into a fundraiser for the kids and families still inside.
From hospital room to first mission
Elijah was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia, an inherited blood disorder that can cause anemia, pain crises, organ damage and frequent infections, and that disproportionately affects Black Americans. His mother, Rasheka Williams, donated her own bone marrow in a transplant to help him. After the procedure, Elijah developed Graft-versus-Host Disease, or GVHD, which kept him in and out of the hospital for months.
“I had to go through chemo, radiation, gut GVHD and skin GVHD, and at one point I lost all my hair,” Elijah said. “I was on a lot of meds and steroids and I would just get angry a lot.”
He also missed significant time at school and was unable to play basketball. His shoes sat untouched…