Nineteen candles lit up the cake for Caden Major this year, but the true celebration was something he once thought impossible: life without sickle cell pain.

For as long as he could remember, the disease had stolen ordinary moments, keeping him out of class, until he had to finish school at home. Friendships were difficult to maintain, especially when he was younger and classmates didn’t understand why he was often absent and home in bed. Even everyday choices, like when to shower, carried risk, knowing a simple routine could trigger days and sometimes weeks of agony.

Eventually, the pain grew so relentless that it landed him in the hospital again and again, culminating in a two-month stay when doctors struggled to control it.

But a new, FDA-approved gene therapy offered him a chance at

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