Patrick Doyle reflects on how he lost his first wife, son to sickle cell

Veteran actor, Patrick Doyle recently spoke with Punch about a grave experience of losing his first wife and son to sickle cell anaemia.

Going down memory lane into the tragic episode of his life, the broadcaster turned actor, who is now happily married to Iretiola Doyle said: ‘It was a very difficult time for me. I have not yet come to terms with my loss. I still miss them both. My Christian faith allows me to give thanks to God in all things. To be honest, it is difficult to give thanks because I always ask God why such happened to me twice. But the truth is there is nothing I can do about it. I feel God has consoled me because I have a wonderful wife and lovely daughters. I have the respect of my peers, I am grateful to God and I can’t complain.

‘There is nothing I can do to change what has happened. I tried to start up a foundation to help people with sickle cell anaemia but I could not bring myself to do it. Anytime I try to, I just remember my young 17-year-old son. I have not got over their deaths especially that of my son. It is very difficult; I need to expunge that feeling before I am able to establish the foundation. I fully intend to advocate about sickle cell. It has been seven years he died but it is very fresh in my memory,’ he lamented.

And further narrating how his late son and wife had the attacks that resulted in their separate deaths, he hinted that, ‘The young boy had only two attacks in his lifetime. The first one was when his mother died. His mother died in 1999 and he was just seven years old. He did not have another attack for about 10 years. I don’t know what could have triggered his attack. His mother for instance had several attacks for the 10 years we married and she always pulled through. I was almost certain he would also pull through but he did not.’...