A conversation with Joseph Mallard needs to last only 60 seconds to understand why<\/p>\n\n\n\n
he is nicknamed \u201cSunshine Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He shares the vivid life advice his father and grandmother gave him when he was a young boy growing up in the Jim Crow South. \u201cPersevere, push forward, keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He details his relentless approach to establishing connections with others, reaching out to five people a day to give an encouraging word or push young people, especially Black boys, to look up, be hopeful, work hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He speaks to others living with sickle cell disease (SCD), offering himself as a living example of his advice: Don\u2019t let the disease rule you, don\u2019t be afraid to seek treatment when you need it, and by golly, live life when you come out of the painful episodes associated with SCD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are the threads of rich yarn that make up Joseph\u2019s life tapestry. They do more than just give him his nickname. They sustain him. They uplift others. And they are why he has become a local legend and nationally recognized figure in his life\u2019s true passion: stitchery and textile art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is the only way I know how to live my life,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cIt is the only way I want to live my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
The Norton Healthcare Adult Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program, in collaboration with Norton Children\u2019s Cancer Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, offers care for all aspects of sickle cell disease, from acute crises to long-term management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NortonHealthcare.com\/SickleCell<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n Joseph\u2019s sickle cell disease story began as many do \u2014 with a scary episode. He remembers driving home to Louisville from nearby Oldham County and feeling listless. He will never forget the most startling part: waking up sometime later in the driver\u2019s seat of his car, which he\u2019d parked along the side of the road. The sudden and consuming exhaustion brought on by SCD had so zapped his energy that he blacked out while driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Air Force veteran was diagnosed with a variant of SCD called sickle beta plus thalassemia by doctors at the Louisville VA Medical Center, the first time Joseph had heard of the ailment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not uncommon for people with Mr. Mallard\u2019s variant of sickle cell disease to go undiagnosed until adulthood even though it is a blood disorder they are born with,\u201d said Shawn D. Glisson, M.D.<\/a>, hematologist with Norton Healthcare\u2019s Adult Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program<\/a>. \u201cBabies now are screened for SCD shortly after birth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n