A dad shares advice on how to handle the hard days. By 12/16/2020 11:36am EST Ali Gaspar (A-Star) is a British rap and grime artist and a new dad. He is also living with sickle cell anemia disease, a genetic and unpredictable multi-system disorder that can lead to health issues, including bone, joint and chest pain, organ damage, stroke, leg ulcers, and infections. “My body has never been normal; it has never been like anyone else’s ... I have to constantly just get on with things,” Gaspar told Lucy Pasha-Robinson, host of the podcast Chronic by HuffPost. As a result of this disease, Gaspar has had countless blood transfusions. He also missed a lot of school growing up, was branded “lazy” by a phys-ed teacher who didn’t understand his condition, and had a hip replacement at the age of 25.