Family diary of cancer warrior, larger than life
Gladys Ombiri is yet to recover from the painful experience she faced when her mother and the sole-bread winner was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018.
It is hard to tell the emotional pain she is suffering until you talk to her. She does not yet believe she will ever recover from the experience.
In December 2020, her mother lost the battle with cancer after a spirited fight by the family to sustain her.
More than a year has passed since then, but the family is yet to get closure. They are among the secondary victims of cancer, with the tell-tale signs of disrupted lives. In similar worlds are many other families, valiantly rising above medical tragedies.
Lost everything
For Gladys, the emotional pain is fresh each day. Etched inside her are the struggles she went through to nurture her mother. She lost friends, her marriage, and her finances and even sunk into debt to provide the necessary medicine.
Treatment of the disease was then very expensive, and beyond the reach of many families. Trepidation swamped the family after the initial confirmation of their mother’s diagnosis.
In an interview with People Daily, she poured her heart out, recalling their disbelief that a seemingly normal illness could morph into breast cancer.
She believes most families of cancer victims should be counselled professionally to overcome the emotional torture rendered by the disease.
It all started in 2018 when her mother started complaining of pain in her breasts, and tender swelling.
“I took her to hospital in Kisumu where she was diagnosed with breast cancer that December,” she narrates.
A month after, additional tests were done and the doctors recommended removal of the affected breast before the condition worsened. This disrupted the family’s life, and they also had to dig deeper into their pockets.
After straining to pay the hospital bills, the doctors said 13 sessions of chemotherapy were needed.
Each session costs Sh15,000. Gladys and the family had to take her back for treatment every three weeks.
Group fund raiser
It was at this point that Gladys formed a WhatsApp group to fundraise for the hospital bill. “I am happy my friends and family stood with us compassionately and financially to ensure mum went through all the chemotherapy sessions”.
Thereafter, the medics prescribed a series of radiotherapy, after which she was declared cancer free. “It was so good to see mother bounce back to life without any pain. We knew God had answered our prayers,” says Gladys.
However, one year later, the mother started complaining of severe back pains, and could barely do anything physical. She lost her ability to walk.
At this time, however, the family didn’t have the finances to take her to the hospital. When the condition deteriorated, however, they took her to another healthcare centre.
Gladys’s mother was then referred to a Nairobi facility, in March 2020, but the onset of Covid-19 lockdowns made travel impossible. “When the lockdowns were lifted, I took her back to the facility where new tests were done,” she recalls. “But the condition worsened and she started bleeding profusely. She became very weak and had to be taken back home”. Gladys says one doctor said the only option they had was to transfer her to India for further treatment.
“When mum heard that treatment abroad was the only option, she regressed into shock ... she couldn’t speak and all her veins disappeared. She succumbed to the illness on December 28, 2020,” says Gladys.
During the entire treatment period, Gladys’ life was a mishmash of tribulation. She even sought odd jobs in her estate, such as washing clothes for Sh200 pay, to help her buy food for the family.
Sadly, some family members abandoned them when the going got tough, as they were continuously begging for money. What’s more, besides lacking a stable job, Gladys was heavy with children. Her husband also abandoned her after all her attention shifted to the mother.
“He left me saying that my problems were too many, including my sick mother, and they were becoming a burden to him,” she recalls. Soon thereafter, he went to Dubai and has never returned, nor called to know the status of Gladys and their baby.
Gladys, 26, is the first born in a family of six. Her siblings dropped out of school to take care of their mother. Her father, a Boda Boda operator, sold all their cattle to help offset the medical bills. “It was not easy. The most devastating thing is that it drains you emotionally; it’s not something to easily recover from,” she explains.
Gladys urges the government to make cancer treatment available and affordable to Kenyans. She discloses that her younger twin sisters were greatly affected as they were intricately attached to their mother.
“They keep breaking down and crying when they see pictures of her. I always lack the words to console them as I’m also hurting inside,” she adds.
Prostate cancer
Her plight is similar to George Omondi’s, whose father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2019 and succumbed to the disease early this year.
Omondi says the disease drained their finances and they sold almost all their properties, including land, to cater for their father’s medical needs.
Experts say families and friends of cancer patients normally carry an inordinate share of the burden. Their mental health is affected and some become depressed.
Dr Catherine Nyongesa, a clinical oncologist at Texas Cancer Centre, says breast cancer is a leading cause of death in Kenya.
Statistics by the Ministry of Health show that breast cancer is the leading cancer in women, with 6,799 new cases annually, followed by cervical cancer at 5,236.
According to Nyongesa, cancer treatment is very expensive.
“Chemotherapy alone costs about Sh150,000; surgery about Sh200,000, and radiotherapy Sh150,000. A combination of these three totals an average of Sh450,000 per patient per year,” she explains.
She recommends early detection of the disease, saying the treatment options are more varied and cheaper.
“The burden of breast cancer is increasing locally. Significant disparities can be identified in various stages. Late detection, as is the case normally, has worse outcomes,” she says.
Nyongesa urges women to have regular screening for cancer, adding: “If breast cancer is detected at an early stage, there is a 93 per cent survival rate”.
