The noise from playing children outside a house intensively heightens into musical beats to the people around. But to one woman, coiled on a cushioned timber chair in a tiny seating room, the belting sound of the 20 plus children is pricking more pain into her weak body.
Judith Akinyi, a 45-year-old mother of five, is pain-throbbed all the time, and for a long period now has been forced to stay in house staring at nothing, hopping that one-day help will come her way to relieve the piecing pains in her body.
She always prays for assistance from well-wishers to get medication for her breast cancer that is now threatening to snap off her dear life.
Akinyi who comes from Aroso village in Suna East, Migori county, recounts that a lump that started growing on her left breast back in the year 2022, which she thought was a normal boil that would later heal, has since become a nightmare to her health.
She explained that the persistence of the pain from the boil prompted her to seek medical attention to ascertain what was wrong.
She first sought medical attention at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital where a couple of tests were done, including X-ray, ultra sound and biopsy. The biopsy was done by draining some fluid from the affected area that indicated traces of cancer.
While seeking further medical attention at the Referral hospital, another test was conducted whereby a tissue was taken from the growth and sent to India for further examination and the result confirmed she had stage two cancer.
“The confirmation of stage two cancer did not kill my hope of living but instead strengthened my trust in God that one day He will extend His hand and have me healed” she said.
Her family has not let her down in the journey to have her healed, she says, adding that a referral to Tenwek hospital in Bomet County for an operation in 2022 was executed successfully after the family members and friends conducted a fundraiser to support her medical procedure.
However, a few months later, the tumor resurfaced with severe pain. She went back to Tenwek hospital late last year and was advised to redo the tests to determine the progress of her condition.
“I was referred to Tenwek for surgery which was successful. But, after just a short period of time, the tumor came back and it was more painful than the first time,” Judith narrates.
To add to her misery, the new tests have revealed that the condition has worsened with the cancer spreading to the blood cells, prompting her to undergo a series of chemotherapies to reverse the condition.
“The doctors prescribed eight sessions which would cost me more than Sh200,000 inclusive of my transport and other expenses,” she decried.
She also highlights how the expensive cancer treatment has deprived her the opportunity to fend for her family. The disease has forced her to close her tailoring business she has had as her only income after her left arm became dysfunctional.
“I can no longer do my tailoring work because my arm is dysfunctional. My husband, who is jobless has since become the sole breadwinner to the family,” Judith says.
Her husband Joseph Otieno, who earns peanuts from doing menial work including taking up night guarding, says that three of their five children were now staying at home with them after they failed to pay school fees.
“Our three children are at home because we failed to pay school fees. I am also unable to provide them with basic needs like treatment. We have tried to plead with the teachers to understand our distressing situation but with no success,” Joseph says
Consequently, the family is pleading with well-wishers to come to their rescue and help their kin to undergo further treatment which they cannot afford on their own.
“I am appealing for help from well-wishers to come to our rescue and help me undergo treatment,” Otieno pleaded.
Further, the family is calling upon the government to bring cancer treatment equipment and specialists closer to the people so that patients could stop travelling long distances for such treatment.
Any help to the family could be channeled through Joseph Otieno, Mobile No. 0727683944.
By Dadius Ontiri and Gabriela Xavier
