About Us

Helping Each Other can Make World Better

From the day Mikayla was born, she faced an uphill battle with Sickle Cell Disease—a genetic condition that causes red blood cells to become rigid and crescent-shaped. These cells can block blood flow, cut off oxygen, and trigger severe pain, organ damage, and life-threatening complications. Despite it all, Mikayla has grown into a fighter, a leader, and an inspiration.

The Mikayla Sarai nonprofit organization was created in her honor to do more than raise awareness. We exist to change how the world understands and responds to Sickle Cell Disease by linking the work to the larger fight for health equity. Too often, families affected by this disease carry not only the medical burden but also systemic barriers in limited resources, delayed care, and bias in the healthcare system.

Our mission is simple and urgent: bridge those gaps. We bring people together through education, advocacy, and community support so every family touched by Sickle Cell Disease has the resources, respect, and quality care they deserve. But we also know awareness alone isn’t enough. Real change requires investment in bold solutions and increased funding for research research that will lead to better treatments, greater access to care, and ultimately, cures. We believe health equity is not a privilege, it’s a right. By standing with warriors and their families, we’re working toward a future where every person receives quality care, no matter their background or circumstances.

At the heart of our work is a powerful truth: helping each other makes the world better.

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Mikayla's Story

Mikayla’s life has been marked by a fight most people can’t imagine. From infancy, pain crises interrupted her play, hospital visits became part of her routine, and her childhood was measured as much in IV lines and medical charts as in birthdays and milestones.

She has endured complications that would overwhelm even the strongest adult—strokes at a young age, the surgical removal of her gallbladder, endless nights of excruciating pain, and hospital stays that stretched on for weeks. Each crisis could have broken her, but instead it revealed her strength.

Now seventeen, Mikayla carries herself with resilience far beyond her years. Even after missed school days, sports she couldn’t finish, and dreams put on pause, she has never stopped believing in her future. She talks about becoming a doctor, using her lived experience to heal others. She dreams of traveling, of seeing the world without the constant fear of the next emergency.

But her story is not only her own, it mirrors the reality of thousands of families living with the same struggle. Parents juggling work and hospital stays. Teenagers missing out on friendships and milestones. Families navigating a healthcare system that often overlooks their pain.

Mikayla’s courage is why our mission exists. Her life is proof that behind every statistic is a child with dreams, a family with hope, and a community that deserves better. By sharing her journey, we are not asking for sympathy, we are asking for action: greater awareness, stronger support, and increased funding for the research that will one day make stories like hers less about survival and more about possibility.

Mikayla is not defined by her disease. She is defined by her determination, her light, and her unshakable hope for tomorrow. And with your support, that hope can spread to countless others still fighting for their chance at a full and healthy life.