Honourable senators, every June 19 in Canada, we mark National Sickle Cell Awareness Day, which was established after Senator Cordy’s bill was given Royal Assent.

A parliamentary breakfast sponsored by the African Canadian Senate Group was held this morning in partnership with the Sickle Cell Disease Association of Canada and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health.

We took this opportunity to present King Charles III’s coronation medals to Biba Tinga, president of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of Canada, and to Dr. Jude Mary Cénat from the University of Ottawa for their ongoing efforts on issues related to sickle cell disease.

Plenty of action is being taken. This morning, the member for Hamilton Centre launched an online petition that families can sign. Tomorrow, Dr. Cénat’s team is hosting a forum at the University of Ottawa on advancing sickle cell care globally. According to the World Health Organization, roughly 5% of the world’s population carries the sickle cell gene and 300,000 people are born with a severe form of the disease. This disease affects nearly 6,000 people across Canada, and that number continues to grow.

I would like to remind you that sickle cell disease is particularly prevalent among persons with ancestors from Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, South America and some regions of India and the Mediterranean.

Since it is National Sickle Cell Awareness Day, I invite you to share the awareness campaigns on social media, so that Canadians can be better informed, better diagnosed and better treated against the ravages of sickle cell disease.

Thank you.