How Losing My Father Sparked a New Vision for Black Women’s Health

My Father's Death Helped Me See the Urgency in Rewriting the Health Narrative

Even though Enhance Black Women’s Health officially launched on February 1, 2023, the mission began years before on October 18, 2021, the day my father, Tom Campbell, passed away. Despite being a man who regularly went on long walks with his dog Angel, consistently went to the gym, and took his prescribed medication for his rheumatoid arthritis (RA), he passed away at the young age of 63.

Although my father’s doctor tried to convince me I didn’t need to seek answers for my father’s sudden illness, I respectfully disagreed.

I didn’t understand how my father’s health could decline so rapidly in one month. It certainly didn’t make sense for me after reading his death certificate that his death was the result of multi-organ system failure caused by acute liver failure and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). It didn’t make sense to me that this wasn’t something that we could have caught sooner.

After learning that HLHs can be triggered by autoimmune conditions, I got even more concerned as I also had RA.

Considering that my father’s passing occurred just days before my 34th birthday, I couldn’t believe that there was nothing that could be done. I certainly couldn’t ignore the fact that my paternal grandfather passed at a young age, my father now passed at a young age, and that I, too, might also pass at a young age. Rather than allow fear to rule me, I let it drive me into research.

What I found changed everything I thought I believed about health and wellness.

As I began to dive deeper into the research, I found myself embarking on a journey through a vast array of information on women’s health, particularly the health of Black women. I was shocked to see that the data regarding women’s health in the U.S. was far from good.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, regardless of age, in the U.S. This is due in part to delays in diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and underrepresentation in clinical trials. In 2023, it was estimated that over 60 million women live with some form of heart disease.

If those statistics weren’t horrible enough, Black women experience disproportionate impacts of heart disease compared to other groups. Factors that contribute to this disparity have been tied to high blood pressure and undiagnosed diabetes. According to the American Heart Association, Go Red for Women, about 59% of Black women over the age of 20 are living with some form of cardiovascular disease.

As a Black woman with RA, Sjögren’s syndrome, and pericentral retinitis pigmentosa, I realized it was time to have a different conversation about health and wellness for Black women. It wasn’t enough to tell people to “eat healthy” and “exercise” when I knew firsthand that health isn’t solely dependent on individual behaviors. Now that I knew the impact of health disparities on Black women, I felt compelled to do something about it.

If you’re feeling the same, I have three steps you might want to consider:

Step 1: Making Health and Wellness a Sustainable Lifestyle

Before my father’s passing, I held onto an "all-or-nothing" mindset. It was about eating the healthiest and exercising the most. However, I wasn’t necessarily looking at what I could do sustainably. It was no surprise after a few weeks on restrictive diets and intense exercise routines that I would be burned out.

When I made the shift to create a sustainable health and wellness lifestyle, I was able to develop habits that met me where I was at. By doing so, I found that health and wellness became less about perfection and more about honoring my body’s current capacity.

Step 2: Building an Eating Practice That Centers the Client

As I'm currently completing the Precision Nutrition (PN) Level 2 Master Health Coaching Certification, I’m hyperaware that the conversation around nutrition has changed. When I completed my PN Level 1 Certification, I was focused on “following the rules” rather than supporting my clients in developing eating practices that aligned with their lifestyles. In other words, I wasn’t a very “client-centered” coach.

However, my own experiences with autoimmune disease have helped me recognize the importance of ensuring that my nutritional recommendations center on the client. That means ensuring that clients are provided with the information they need to encourage their cultural foods and the foods that they love into their eating plan.

Step 3: Redefining Movement as a Tool for Healing

It should go without saying that as a Marine Corps veteran with two Army veteran parents, I had a complicated relationship with exercise. For many years, I falsely believed that if there was “no pain,” then there was no gain. However, I have shifted my perceptions of movement after my diagnosis for the better.

Now I see movement as more than exercise, but an opportunity to support my body’s natural healing process. From walking along the trail with my dog to dancing in the kitchen while I cook, redefining my approach to movement has helped me develop a healthier relationship with exercise.

Even though my father’s death is a wound that has not yet healed, I hold onto the belief that it holds a much deeper purpose in my life. Without this “divine detour,” as my colleague, Gail Carter, would say, I wouldn’t be where I am today. While that doesn’t make me miss my dad any less, I know that he’d be darn proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish today.

If I’m being honest, I don’t know exactly how to end today’s newsletter. But what I do encourage you to do, only if you feel called, is to share the story that you’ve been afraid to share. This is a story I’ve held back sharing until I knew the time was “right” to share it. Full disclosure, I still don’t know, but I’m sharing it anyway.

If the story you want to share is not yet ready for the worldwide internet, feel free to share it with me.