NotJustYou’s fourth World Sickle Cell Day Brunch is the last for a while

Today is World Sickle Cell Day. On Saturday, June 13, NotJustYou marked it the way it has every June since 2023, with a brunch in Edmonton.

This year’s brunch was the fourth, and NotJustYou has announced it will be the last World Sickle Cell Day Brunch for a while. After four Junes, the series is coming to a close.

An afternoon at CKUA

Guests arrived at 1 PM at the CKUA Radio Network building, styled for the day in yellow and white. Yellow chairs and white drapes set the tone before anyone spoke. A buffet anchored the afternoon, and Be My Guest was on hand for portraits.

The warrior panel

The centrepiece was a warrior panel led by a psychologist, giving people living with sickle cell the stage to speak in their own words. Having a psychologist guide the conversation keeps mental health in view alongside the physical side of sickle cell.

The format carries over from last year. In 2025, psychologist and author Esther Marah moderated the panel, and Dr. Adedamola “Dammy” Bello, an internal medicine physician, sickle cell warrior and NotJustYou’s Clinical Director, gave the keynote.

Four Junes in Edmonton

The first World Sickle Cell Day Brunch took place in June 2023, the same year NotJustYou returned to in-person events after a 38-month pause. It came back every June after that, always in Edmonton and always in honour of World Sickle Cell Day.

NotJustYou’s work rests on three pillars: educate, motivate and celebrate. The brunch was where the third pillar was easiest to see, with warriors and sickle supporters gathered around good food and honest conversation.

Its partner on the calendar has been The Kickback, the rooftop BBQ in Edmonton that opened Sickle Cell Awareness Month each September from 2023 to 2025. Together, the two events gave the community a reason to gather every June and every September.

Four brunches is a short series, and a meaningful one for a community that had gone 38 months without NotJustYou’s in-person events before they returned in 2023. NotJustYou described this year’s brunch as the last for a while, so the series closes at four. To everyone who came, sat on a panel or brought a friend over the years, thank you.

Why June 19 still matters

June 19 is World Sickle Cell Day, recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in 2008. In Canada, the National Sickle Cell Awareness Day Act, which received Royal Assent on December 12, 2017, recognizes the same date as National Sickle Cell Awareness Day. September, widely observed as Sickle Cell Awareness Month, brings a second chance each year to keep the conversation going.

This year, the date also follows news from Parliament. On June 16, Bill S-201, which would require a national framework on sickle cell disease, passed second reading in the House of Commons and was referred to the Standing Committee on Health.

The day belongs to every warrior, caregiver and sickle supporter, with or without a brunch to attend. A few ways to mark it:

• Learn the basics of sickle cell, then share one fact with someone who does not know it
• Give blood, or join the stem cell registry if you are 17 to 35
• Join the next Cells session on June 29, a mid-year round table check-in for people living with sickle cell and caregivers
• Tell your MP why a national framework on sickle cell matters to you
• Check in on the warriors and caregivers in your life

Read more in our World Sickle Cell Day explainer. If one of the brunches meant something to you, share your story with us.