Bronx teen uses her music to help others with sickle cell disease

A teenage girl from the Bronx is doing her part to help people with sickle cell disease end disease awareness month by using her own music.

Kadi Barry, 14, was born with sickle cell disease and a resilient mind. She sings her own songs to give people with the disease a positive outlook – as well as the reassurance that they are not alone.

Barry first began singing in public at a summer camp for chronically ill children. This experience inspired her to make her music video to spread a message of hope.

“Anytime you’re sad come back to my little video and we can sing together and have a little laugh,” she told News 12.

In the United States, approximately 100,000 people are born with a rare disease of blood cells, which causes pain and complications throughout the body. And for Barry, who has spent many days at Montefiore Children’s Hospital battling the disease, she believes those chances make people with sickle cell disease special.

“My mom always told me that if I was born with this, I was different,” Barry added. “That I’m a good different, I’m unique.”

Barry is very hopeful that other people with the condition will start to speak up. Dr Kerry Morrone, who works at Montefiore, wants those in pain to listen.

“Not to judge when they say they need to rest more or need to take extra water breaks,” Morrone said. “They can look healthy on the outside at times when their body is really under a lot of internal stress.”

Barry would like to return to Montefiore soon, but in a broader light as a doctor or nurse.

“If, you know, I meet a sickle cell patient over there, I might be like, ‘Oh, I have sickle cell disease,'” she said. “They say to me, ‘Wait, do you have sickle cell disease? You look so healthy. I’m like, ‘It’ll be you when you’re older.’ “