Back to Blood Recipient Stories

Reverend Willie Jones, Jr.

Rev. Willie Jones, Jr.

Every Sunday, Willie Jones, Jr., an assistant pastor for the last nine years at Rochester Bible Baptist Church in Rochester, New York gathers with his congregation of 200 members to share in spiritual worship. Every day, though, Willie lives with sickle-cell anemia. The key word here is that he lives, and the keys to his survival are much simpler than many would think. Willie doesn’t rely on numerous medications or ill-fated cure-alls. He simply puts his faith in God and his trust in blood donors to help him live the best life he can.

Approximately 72,000 Americans live with sickle cell anemia each year, making it the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States. Moreover, this blood disease affects about 1 in every 500 African-Americans. Willie Jones is one of them. People with sickle cell anemia have irregular shaped red blood cells, which are sickle or crescent-shaped and have difficulty passing through small blood vessels. They can block blood vessels, resulting in less blood reaching parts of the body. Body tissue that does not receive a normal amount of blood flow eventually becomes damaged. In short, sickle cell anemia is very painful for most people and shortens the average life span for many.

Willie knows all too well the debilitating effects of sickle cell anemia. "I was that kid that sat inside the house on hot summer days, looking through the window at the other kids playing, wishing I could join them," he says. Willie was frequently in the hospital for emergency room visits or sick at home where his mother, who “was strong and supportive," he lovingly recalls, took care of him the best way she could, using hot water bottles and soothing words to treat painful muscle spasms. Sickle cell anemia is very unpredictable and Willie says that even now he has days when all he can do is rest.

At the age of 24, Willie began receiving routine blood transfusions—two units of type O positive blood every three weeks, to help prevent strokes, organ damage and other complications that affect patients. "I made a choice to live", says Willie about receiving his blood transfusions. "With blood donations, I can live a more normal life. I can contribute to society. I can live in this world instead of sitting home waiting to die." Without blood donors, though, Willie says it would be impossible for him to have pain free days.

Today, Willie is 36 years old, happily married with four children, and fully living each day. He thanks blood donors for their commitment to giving life. "Life is in the blood," he says, "Without blood, there is no life. I can’t think of a better way to save life than to give it."