Destiny Hannah opened the door to her new apartment with a new energy that radiated through her bright smile.
“This is my new place —for my new life,” she said jokingly.
It's been two years since Destiny Hannah received a bone marrow transplant to reverse her sickle cell disease. Once a patient hits that two-year mark, with minimal complications, doctors said it's usually smooth sailing from there.
Hannah said she now wakes up energetic and grateful every day.
“This disease has taken years from me,” she said. “But I wouldn't change anything about my story. I think the experience made me who I am today.”
Sickle cell disease is a blood disorder that shortens the life span of red blood cells and causes them to change shape from round to more crescent-like. The sickled cells can interlock while flowing through the bloodstream, which disrupts blood and oxygen flow and can cause episodes of severe pain.
Hannah recalls experiencing these crises every couple of weeks and being miserable. WXXI News spotlighted Hannah’s case in 2021, as part of a report on the disparity in research funding for the illness that predominately affects people of color.
At the time, Hannah spoke of feeling like her body was “breaking down,” explaining: ““It’s like a burning, excruciating pain, to the point where it can just knock me out sometimes.” Now all she talks about are the possibilities.
“I was very dependent on those around me, so it's completely different doing life on my own,” Hannah said.
Sickle cell disease can be reversed through gene therapy or a bone marrow transplant, experts said. But both procedures are risky. Hannah said her mental health was deteriorating before the transplant, which made for an easier decision.
"I was going to kill myself, or this disease was going to kill me,” Hannah said. “Once I realized that's where I was mentally, I had to look for a change.”
Hannah was denied the transplant locally, so she sought experts at New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, one of the largest centers for bone marrow and stem cell transplants in the country.
Dr. Maria Cancio, an oncologist and pediatric hematologist, took Hannah’s case. Cancio said Hannah’s history of pain crisis, which often placed her in the hospital, made her a strong candidate for the procedure.
“She was sick enough from that, but her organs were healthy enough where we knew that the benefit would outweigh the risk,” Cancio said.
Cancio and her team perform at least 10 transplants a year with a 99% success rating. The process entails about a week of intense chemotherapy, to clear the patient’s bone marrow, then the transplant occurs similar to a blood transfusion.
From check-in to recovery Cancio said it takes at least nine months for a patient to begin adapting to their “new body”.
“We learn from every single patient,” Cancio said. “The lessons obviously are different, but in Destiny's case, this is the magnitude of the impact of this transplant.”
Cancio said the earlier in life the transplant is done, the better. Her youngest patient so far was 2 years old. She said a perfect bone marrow donor is a sibling or, in Hannah’s case, a parent.
"She's not only alive, she's also living and giving back to her community and to all of us,” Cancio said about Hannah. “This is a success in every way.”
Now Hannah is just living with the sickle cell trait, and is able to do the things she struggled to do with the full-blown disease, including going to the gym and holding down a steady job. She graduates from nursing school in May, a goal she had to continuously delay due to her former blood disorder.
“I'm looking forward to a future,” Hannah said. “I don't know what it looks like, but I'm glad that I have one.”
