BY MUSBAUDEEN SHEKONI & SADIQ OYINKANSOLA-MABEKO, LASU

LIFE Line Academy in conjunction with Lagos  State University Law Students Association (LASULAWS) has held a meeting tagged:” Re-inspire LASU Project to impact on students’ lives.”

The programme which was held at Okunuga Hall, Faculty of Law, LASU saw  no fewer than 300 students and eminent members of the LASU alumni association in attendance.

Victoria Pepple, a presenter with Silver Bird Television (STV); Bar. Kayode Adedeji, a Lagos-based legal  practitioner; Toyin Adesola, founder and executive director, Sickle Cell Anaemia Advocacy and Management Initiative (SAMI) and representative of chairman, Amuwo Odofin LGA among others were present at the occasion.

Speaking on Re-Inspiring LASU Project, the author of Still Standing and CEO, SAMI, Toyin Adesola, enjoined students to make their challenges their stepping stones to success while saying that people’s lives are not determined by what happens to them but how they react to what happens.

Numerous challenges
Sharing her experiences as  someone with sickle cell anaemia, she narrated a heart-breaking story that drew tears from some of the listeners.

She said: “One of the numerous challenges I ever reckoned with is stigmatisation. It’s sad to be condemned by friends and relatives because of one’s natural challenges. I was made to realise that life out there is a jungle especially when I was bed-ridden for six months and later three years and I had to withdraw from school.”

Speaking further, she said that in the spate of condemnations, she became an ‘isolate’ but she is very appreciative to God, having made use of that isolation to think of better things. “One of such things is SAMI, an initiative which advocates  for treatment and counselling both for people with sickle cell disease and those going into relationships.