Miss Ja Universe 2011 dies from sickle cell

Former Miss Jamaica Universe Shakira Martin died at a hospital in Florida last night due to complications with the sickle cell disease. She was 30 years old.

Martin’s mother, Andrea Hall, confirmed her death in a social media post earlier today. “My darling princess Shakira Aminah passed away at 12:28am from complications from sickle cell blood clots to both lungs” she said.

"Shakira was a fighter, lived her life in the moment, never became a slave to her disease. I will [keep] you posted with all the arrangements which will be both in Florida and Jamaica her favourite place in the whole world. Thanks for your support, prayers, phone calls, texts," she added in her Facebook post.

Martin had been on life support after a lifelong battle with sickle cell anaemia. When she died, she was surrounded by family and friends who gathered to bid her farewell.

The 2011 beauty pageant winner told the Jamaica Observer in an interview after her crowning that she was eager to start her sickle cell anaemia awareness campaign.

Being a sickler, Martin said she had entered the competition in hopes of getting a larger platform to increase awareness about the disease.

Both of the beauty queen's parents had the sickle cell trait which meant that they had a 25 per cent chance of producing a child with sickle cell anaemia. Although her brother only got the trait as well, she was diagnosed with the disease, which made her childhood a little difficult.  

Read more about Miss Ja Universe's sickle cell fight

SHE is still on cloud nine following her crowning as Miss Jamaica Universe 2011 last weekend, but Shakira Martin says she is eager to start her sickle cell anaemia awareness campaign in the coming weeks.

Being a sickler, Martin said she had entered the competition in hopes of getting a larger platform to increase awareness about the disease. Having beat out 16 other girls to secure the coveted title, she will finally be able to see her dream come to fruition.

"It is known, but people don't have much knowledge of sickle cell anaemia," Martin told All Woman.

Both of the beauty queen's parents had the sickle cell trait which meant that they had a 25 per cent chance of producing a child with sickle cell anaemia. Although her brother only got the trait as well, she was diagnosed with the disease, which made her childhood a little difficult.

"Life was challenging, there were restrictions as far as things that I was able to do, like swimming in the pool for long periods of time or going to the beach. I could always go to the beach, but I couldn't stay in the water all day because I didn't want to get myself in crisis," she explained.

Still, Martin believes that she is luckier than other sicklers since she only got sick about twice annually. Her worst episode to date occurred last year when she started teaching pre-school children.

"I am very fortunate. Everytime I meet a new doctor they say, 'you don't look like a sickler, your eyes aren't really yellow and you are very pink."

Martin, who travels back and forth from Florida to Jamaica, said that while some people are understanding, others discriminate.

"During college, I was taking five or six courses per semester. Everyone knows school is hard, but whenever I was sick like for maybe one or two weeks, I had maybe like four out of my six professors who were not willing to work with me under any circumstances. Due to that I had to drop back on my work load. I was only able to take one or two classes per semester just because of the fact that I didn't want to risk getting sick and not being able to catch up with my work," she said.

But Martin has never used her disease as a crutch and has pushed forward to accomplish her goals with the encouragement of family and friends. Even after being hospitalised in a Florida-based hospital during the Miss Universe competition, she was still able to see the event through to what turned out for her to be a very fruitful end.

The Miss Jamaica Universe winner said most of her fellow contestants were very encouraging and eager to learn more about the disease and how they could help to increase awareness.

"Cancer is a terrible disease to have, but there is such an awareness that automatically people will help you do whatever you want, but sickle cell is a life-changing, life-threatening disease and the same empathy should be placed with sickle cell as with any other disease. Just because you can't see it, a lot of people think it is not as bad as it is," the beauty queen said.

Martin said she plans to go to as many hospitals and schools as possible to share information about the disease and said she will continue her awareness campaign even after her time as Miss Jamaica Universe comes to an end.

Her mother Andrea Hall said she is proud of the fact that her daughter is planning to bring more focus to the disease and raise awareness about the challenges faced by those living with it.

"I feel now that she is of age and she is ready to be able to spread the word about it and help others. I made sure when she was small to meet with all her teachers so they could have a full understanding of what it was about, because I know the prejudice faced by a ton of people that had it," she said.

In addition to increasing sickle cell awareness, Martin said she is also making preparations for the Miss Universe competition which will be taking place soon in Brazil.