Toyosi Philli
Fast rising actress, Toyosi Phillip,
would never forget the day her father died due to complications from
sickle cell anaemia. She was only 11 years old. She told Saturday Beats that she saw her father in the morning before going to school and by the time she was back, he had died.
She said, “I saw my father in the
morning and when I got back from school in the afternoon, he had died. I
was 11 years old and the whole thing was not fully processed until much
later in my life. I just noticed that my mother was crying, so I joined
her. I saw a lot of family members and knew that something was wrong
but it was not clear until years later. I am an only child. My father
was amazing and he was my first love. When he was alive, life was very
beautiful. He made me know that he loved me regardless of anything that I
did. I still miss him and I think about him a lot.
“He never let me know whenever he was
ill. Now that I am grown up, it makes sense because there were times I
would return from school only to be whisked off to an aunt’s house. I
believe at those times, he was really ill and going through a crisis but
he did not want me to see that. I did not really see him ill till his
last days when I spent a lot of time with him. I noticed that he was not
strong, his feet and face were swollen and he was really ill. I knew
something was wrong when he called me and told me to take care of my
mother and he was crying when he said that. It was about the last thing
he said to me. I cannot marry a guy with sickle cell anaemia because I
am AS and I would not want to bring a child into this world that would
suffer the way my father suffered. I have somebody I really care about
right now but you can never be too sure until you walk down the aisle
with your man.”
In honour of her late father, the actress has set up a trust fund in order to help people living with the disease.
“What I have on the ground is an
endowment fund. It assists foundations or activities that are sickle
cell related with funds. What really hurts me is that it is an avoidable
disease and that people going through the experience did not have a
hand in it; they are not at fault. There are several diseases that are
self-inflicted and sickle cell anaemia is not one of them, so, it is
just painful to be born into something that you do not have a say in. I
set up the endowment fund in memory of my father to support people,
especially children living with the disease,” Philips said.
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