SAMANTHA GREAVES COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER, NATURAL HEALTH & WEALTH PROMOTER FOUNDER OF: HASIF PROMOTIONS, HEALTHY LIVING INTERNATIONAL Ltd & THE SICKLE CELL CARE ACTION, UNITY, SUPPORT with EMPATHY GROUP (SCCAUSE) MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF ELDERS FOR COMMUNITY SAFEGUARD TEAM TRAINING COORDINATOR FOR GIFT GENIUS (African Heritage Wealth Empowerment Program)
I was diagnosed at age four with having Sickle Cell Anaemia, my mortality date was given most ungraciously, to be between the age of fourteen to twenty-one years. Whilst growing up I didn’t actually realise the impact the knowledge of my mortality date had on my personal emotions, lifestyle and general attitude to life however subconsciously I found I would begin projects, usually community based, but not continue, I expect a lot from myself and up until very recent seemed to think that its excusable for others not to commit half as much; I would always’ give away my biggest piece, my last penny, my support, personal loyalty, and my most valuable possession; my time, however, I never expected the same to be given back to me and because I didn’t expect it; it was hardly ever reciprocated. Much later in life the realisation of this knowledge became evident to be textbook behaviour from someone living with ‘Post Traumatic Shock Syndrome’ with one of the symptoms being a deep sense of worthlessness. Whilst I don’t like to label things or put things into a specific box, this information came as a healing path for me as I learnt it during the counselling sessions I was prescribed to attend after facing death after a particularly traumatic & painful sickle crisis, in this case, caused by the lack of knowledge and blatant disregard of the advice and information, I and many other sickle cell patients have to offer the medical profession with regards to treating Sickle Cell anaemia in hospitals that don’t specialise with the condition. ‘The adult Sickle Cell Patient is the expert person when needing medical attention.’ Being a mother of three, nutrition was an especially important factor when bringing up my children; however, I really received my education on the benefits of nutrition when I was introduced to health supplements in 2003. As a woman living with the Sickle Cell disorder, throughout my teens, twenty’s and thirty’s, it wasn’t unusual for me to be admitted into hospital at 4 to 6 week intervals to receive powerfully strong pain medication and antibiotics, blood transfusions, oxygen and consistent saline drips; I was also dependant on a cocktail of daily prescribed medication when not in hospital. My school years was a harrowing experience, I remember through junior school in the winter, constantly trying to stand inside the doors during playtime and being sent back outside by the teachers and monitors, in those days be it rain, sleet or snow none was a reason to be indoors during play or lunchtime; no excuse was considered.
During my teenage years, I grew a love of sports and ran the 100 and 200 metres sprints and was always the first or forth leg of our relay team; but I always paid a heavy price of severe pain and/or hospitalisation the same night or following day. Academically, I was ok during school, but I missed many days, there were days whereas I was present but in too much pain to concentrate, when it was decided that I wasn’t to do sports, my behaviour took a turn and I became unresponsive during class and finally just didn’t go back and made a childish choice to leave school early. Upon leaving school I was notably successful with the process of applying, being interviewed and becoming employed, however, I could never keep a job whether full or part-time as I would constantly be letting my colleagues down with days off. In my case, with Sickle Cell Anaemia there are no overly obvious visual signs of any illness being present; it is only when I fall into crisis, that my condition is manifest. A common phrase for people to say to me when they first realise, I have this condition is: “You don’t look like you have Sickle Cell” and this is common amongst Sickle Cell Patients, which adds false weight to those that like to label us as pretenders, drug addicts and lazy. My pride didn’t and still doesn’t allow for me to appear lazy and in 1997, my friend Denzil Hunte and I joined forces and created my first community venture, where we promoted local talent and organised community events always with the proceeds being donated to the Sickle Cell Community, we called ourselves ‘Him & Her Promotions”, but due to our lack of experience and personal funds we lasted for only 18months, but it was a taste of grassroot community work that would never leave me. I was born in the UK in the 1960’s to parents from the Caribbean, it was quickly realised that the doctors in the UK had very limited knowledge on this debilitating blood disorder, no fault of their own but this was a condition that was very new to the UK and this painful condition was here in abundance. I consider myself as one of the survivors; my peers and I were the original `guinea pigs’, (a person who is given new prescription drugs, sometimes before they are released on the general market, to test for side effects), every prescription drug that could seem helpful for the Sickle Cell condition was put through our bodies, which, by the way, was necessary testing for future benefit. When in crisis the pain from the Sickle Cell condition is intolerable to bear, but some of the side effects from those prescription drugs would sometimes be far worse. I actually found that by taking some of those prescribed medication, ‘which all have side effects’, caused me more suffering, with pain, hallucinations, hair loss, swollen gums and internal organs. I have endured many operations because of side effects from these drugs rather than from the Sickle Cell condition itself. Being a direct patient of Dr George Marsh during the 70s & part of the 80s, before his demise, I truly consider myself to be one of the more fortunate of Sickle Cell patients, in my opinion not only was he a very gentle and caring physician, he was also a great advocate for research into the Sickle Cell condition. Dr Marsh soon found prescription drugs that would help to relieve my extreme pain and swellings, with minimal side effects, but ‘they were side effects all the same’ and I was still being regularly admitted into hospital.
In 2003 my elder sister Deborah, gave me a bottle of Aloe Vera Juice, ‘Drink this’ she advised, ‘it will help you with your swollen stomach, your IBS, (irritable bowel syndrome, caused by excessive prescription medication), constant exhaustion, joint pains, skin problems, yellow eyes plus much more, sure I thought, but I tried it anyway, well after my initial gagging, I informed her that this particular juice had date expired, but she was adamant that it hadn’t and that was how it was supposed to taste. Because, and only because I trust and love my sister extremely, did I continue to drink this foul tasting juice, which, by the way, I now love; after around three weeks I noticed that I had a lot more energy and after around 68 weeks I was now walking upright, I also noticed that I was sleeping throughout the night and that I was no longer reliant on the obscene amount of daily antacids I was taking which was keeping Gaviscon in business and I add, I was elated. With my new lease of life I began my study into my new wonder juice and the other natural Supplements this company had to offer and now I was enlightened, so I did an in-depth study on this entire organisation, and over a course of time, (around 6-8 months) I managed to wean myself off of many of the eight daily prescribed drugs and replaced them with natural supplements, because all quality natural supplements, I learnt, had no side effects as they were derived from food, unless off course you are allergic to a certain food that your supplement is derived from, I was now one of the Sickle Cell patients that could be treated more often as an outpatient as my once frequent hospital admissions became rarer. My juice and supplements gave me a new lease of life, no longer was I constantly stuck at home following daytime TV and watching the Soap Opera’s in the evenings, I now had physical energy and my brain was ticking, I had to do something worthwhile, but what? I was still ‘unemployable’ as I still had Sickle Cell and nobody wanted to take the chance with me, let’s face it, I could still have a crisis at any time and compromise my work colleagues, so it was at this point that I thought of Charity work, I’d heard about volunteering in the past, whereas I could do as little or as many hours that I could to help with a needy cause or charity. I chose the local Red Cross Shop, it was a ‘no brainer’, I applied, was interviewed and was accepted, I chose my hours and then for the next three months I was bored to tears, yes I was friendly and the customers and my colleagues liked me as I too liked them, and yes I felt I was doing something worthwhile, but I was bored to tears, waiting for someone to enter the shop to donate a puzzle or purchase a jumper was not how I wished to spend my newly found energy and to top things off, I was broke…, Now it was my daughters turn to give me life changing advice; at the time Leanne was 19 years of age, she had been working in a bank for a year, couldn’t stand much more of it and had just started on a new part-time college course, “I’m going to open a ‘Real Home’ for the youths that are labelled as dysfunctional’, she said, but I need experience with motivating them, I’m also going to need a University Degree and around £40,000 to make it all happen”, she said. “Do you think you could help me to organise some type of Motivational Event Mum?” Well after a couple of hours we came up with a Sponsored Walk and this took a lot of organising, we called it ‘Community Miles for Sickle Cell’. It was now that I had entered the real world of ‘The Community Volunteer’ and gained the experience I have todate from the grass roots level and together Leanne and I organised our first six mile walk with 80 walkers and we raised over £1000 for our local Sickle Cell Support Group.
Our voluntary work continued and whilst Leanne got her head down for college and then the hard slog of University, over the next four years I organised another two sponsored walks, two youth talent contests, therapeutic Swim & Massage sessions for people with Sickle Cell, Thalassemia, Arthritis, Obesity and other illnesses and also Open Days to promote other Voluntary Organisation in our community. By now I had raised awareness to many and hundreds of pounds for charity, I found my work to be very satisfying and I received awards and acclaim for my voluntary services & achievements and I felt very necessary, since 2003 I have continued my voluntary services to Sickle Cell Support at a management level and have served on the committees of both Haringey and Enfield Sickle Cell Support Groups. But I was still broke and with my added workload I was ordering and using a lot more of my supplements which was putting me into personal debt, I was now spending around £220 per month on these supplements which of course helped my complete lifestyle immensely but was proving to be a monetary expense I could not afford. It was at this point that I was introduced into the valuable concept of Network Marketing. It was explained to me, that if I were to recommend these supplements to others who also found benefit, then I would be paid for my recommendation and if that person did the same I would also receive a percentage of what they were paid and so on and so forth, well of course I had been sharing my products with my peers whom were also sickle cell affected but with this new found knowledge I had a new type of vigour and went about sharing at a different level with my peers whom also benefited, my customer base was now a huge success and not only was I paid but I also earned foreign holidays for myself, family and team members and life was great, but me being me with all this new found knowledge forced me to look at things rationally, if supplements are derived from food, would it not be better and cheaper for me to be eating food as a cure rather than fixing a problem after the fact with expensive supplements? Let’s face it, the right food is supposed to heal the body and supplements are to assist your healthy diet, so if one were to be eating healthily to begin with, then it would not be a necessity to consume so many supplements. This is the reason why I then joined Saladmaster an organisation that endorses healthy eating and is supported by Change 4 Life and The Cancer Project. I had always enjoyed cooking so now presenting and cooking a healthy three course meal completely free of charge to my friends and peers was another no brainer and gave me the opportunity to promote the titanium healthy sets of cookware that encouraged a healthier eating lifestyle with normal every day food and helped the health of my community with every meal cooked for a lifetime because the cookware continues to hold a lifetime warranty; this opportunity now had me taking a life journey never to be forgotten. Furthermore, as a result, I now only consume three supplements per day as I get my body’s daily nutritional needs from my food that is cooked in my titanium cookware, I am no longer forced to take prescribed medication multiple times a day on a daily basis and suffer the side effects, proudly, I am no longer reliant on them as I am now able to manage my Sickle Cell condition more naturally.
In January 2015 Founded the Sickle Cell Care, Advocacy, Unity, Support with Empathy Group better known as SC Cause a support group more geared towards action and empathy with education towards self-help being a major factor of its foundation, our works carry us as far afield as the Gambia, West Africa, where we find our work is needed and appreciated. So now that I have arrived and passed my fiftieth year, whereas I was advised that my life would expire between the ages of 14yrs -21yrs; I am grateful and the recipient of a much healthier and happier lifestyle than I was in my younger years, my daughter and I are incredibly happy helping with mentoring and assisting with supporting & helping to build the confidence and financial security for adults and youths alike. I believe ‘knowing one’s personal worth’ is of paramount importance, I grew up always believing that each day could be my last and therefore lived with a very cavalier attitude towards life. However, once I became a mother and continued to live and get stronger as I got older, I realised my worth knowing that it was up to me to make my life journey worthy, notable and necessary. I am no longer quietly ashamed of being a ‘giver’ as I was made to feel when constantly volunteering to do what others wouldn’t do for others, it is my calling and I am comfortable with sacrifice and volunteering, however over the years I have learnt to manage myself and not to give without receipt. By this I mean that every-day that I give of myself I must feel comfortable doing so, it must be covered by the correct motive behind it; it must add to worth and growth to the receiver as well as myself, whether it be economically, spiritually or financially and I found my niche for financial/ economic giving which began with Network Marketing, that we have now upgraded to real Relationship Marketing and Nation Building as the Gift Genius vehicle is the only way forward for people with health, educational and wealth issues to be able to succeed fairly in today’s society. So, as I have reached my older years and am now a grandmother of eight, something I thought I would never see, I have found myself to be more accepting and understanding of others. A definite milestone was being asked to join the committee of a conscious community organisation called the Council of Elders for Community Safe-Guard, a role I take very seriously indeed because I did not ever expect to be considered an Elder! I accept who I am and still feel my deep need to assist and share information. I love to travel and enjoy taking groups of people abroad to enjoy relaxation, detox with nutritional and holistic education for better lifestyle, a project we began in 2012 called the Health Enhancement Project known as HEPS. SO WHO AM I AT 5O +… I am an advocate and speaker of Sickle Cell Anaemia and work hard to inspire my peers and community. I am a business builder assisting to build wealth amongst my more conscientious peers, I am a frequent traveller with an interest in our communities around the world and in the process of writing my book. I am a Grandmother with a loving growing family…. ‘Oh’ and I have Sickle Cell Anaemia, however, Sickle Cell Anaemia no longer has me… I am often asked for my formula to success, which I am incredibly happy to share; this is the advice I gave to the Leaders and rising Stars within my network. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Share your knowledge without expectation, no one is you, so do this openly and expect nothing but respect in return. Register to Healthy Living International; there you will be introduced to life saving formulas with regards to better health, wealth and happiness. Join Gift Genius, because without wealth we are not in a position to aid others and move freely worldwide. Email: queeneaglebiz@gmail.com Tel 07508 908549 Open a Monzo Bank account and also download ‘WhatsApp’ or ‘Telegraph’ to your smartphone. Be open and allow our team to help restore your faith in YOU!! Note: If you cannot open your hand to GIVE, your hand will remain closed when it’s time to RECEIVE. I look forward to speaking with you.