Jackson Free Press

Jaden Wesley Nixon isn't your typical 13 year old. For one, he has sickle cell disease, an illness where a person's red blood cells are sickle-shaped, which can block blood flow to the limbs and organs.

"I'm not as strong or as fast as the other kids in my grade, and I'm not able to run as long as other people," Nixon says.

"It affects my growth, so I'm a little shorter than people in my grade."

Normal blood cells are disc-shaped, which allows them to move easily through blood vessels. They carry a protein called hemoglobin that carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. With sickle cell disease, red blood cells have an abnormal hemoglobin that causes the cells' crescent shape. In addition to blocking blood flow, the stiff, sticky cells increase a sufferer's risk of infection.

When he was born, Nixon's parents, Dee Bookert-Nixon and Larry Nixon, knew their son had the disease. Bookert-Nixon began curesicklecell.org in 2002 after seeing little research and a lack of funding to find a cure. She started the site to connect with other families with sickle-cell patients, but eventually the foundation became a way to make a difference. "We certainly think we've had a positive impact on the perception of sickle cell," Larry Nixon, a partner with Surgical Anesthesia Associates, told BOOM Jackson magazine in January.

His disease doesn't stop young Jaden Nixon from being a young Renaissance man.

When he was in 5th grade, Jaden's interest in technology compelled him to join the robotics club at his school, St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Ridgeland.

"I thought I might give it a try and ended up really liking it," Nixon says, especially when the club programs robots and tells them when and how to move. Nixon is also in the chess club, which he joined in 6th grade. In addition to club memberships, Nixon has played the violin in the Mississippi Youth Symphony Orchestra for six years, and he plays euphonium for St. Andrews' school band He also enjoys playing African djembe drums.

"Not only do I like listening to music, I like learning how to play it myself," Nixon says. One day, he hopes to make music a paying job.
 Nixon also wants to become an anesthesiologist like his father and take professional photographs on the side. In fact, Jackson Free Press staffers first met Nixon at the January BOOM "Jackson Power Couples" shoot, where he took personal photos, while Tate Nations photographed his parents for the magazine.

"I always like taking the pictures and not being in (them)," he says. Ever since his parents bought a professional camera last summer, Nixon has been honing his photography skills.

Together, the Nixons volunteer with Jack and Jill of America, an organization dedicated to nurturing future African American leaders. The family also includes Makaila Faith Nixon, who is 3.