Cancer - The little I know

Nearly two decades ago, I lost my favorite girl to breast cancer. In those dreadful days, my tribesmen were yet to comprehend the illness so they were sure my mother was bewitched. When you hear something like that at fifteen, you request to know the culprit which is whoever the adults suspect the most to might have been jealous over 'the progress' your loved one had made before their 'unexpected' death.

I bet if your country is developed and you don't harbor what @suesa calls 'religious weirdos', you are wondering what the hell I am talking about. Stay with me.

After asking the most indiscreet aunty, she pointed me towards a former close friend of my late mum. The confusion her sentiments gave me and something within me saying a medical beast had claimed my mother's life drove me to trespass my grandfather's sacred territory -his large wooden box.

I dag deep in his personal belongings to get my proof and avoid hating a good woman for the rest of my life for no reason at all. Some I couldn't read, I was a primary school drop out but what I did understand was enough to help me ignore my aunty and relatives at large.

Cancer awareness found me already a mum and I will never forget how sad and happy I was at the same time. Sad that when my mother was dying from it, no one at home really knew what was killing her. People didn't differentiate much between terminal illnesses and traditional myths. I still feel like she died feeling so alone.

My being happy about it was I finally have the right information about the monster that is breast cancer and cancer at large. This allows me to take better care of myself and the people around me. I check my breasts constantly for lumps and annually take a pap-smear to check for cervical cancer (which is ranked fourth in cancer-related deaths in women worldwide and second after breast cancer in Kenya).

I also know a little bit about ovarian cancer because it claimed my all-time African Shero Prof Wangari Maathai who passed in 2011 after a five year battle with it. Locally, I am involved with cancer awareness movements and I am glad to see my people embrace learning more about this global predicament.

In Kenya, cancer comes third as the highest cause of morbidity after infectious and cardiovascular diseases, claiming 7% of the deaths per year. Leading cancers in women are breast and cervical while prostate and esophageal weigh men down.

We have an estimated 39000 new cases of cancer in Kenya and approximately 27000 deaths every year. I have used estimated and approximately because it is very difficult to get the actual national data in a country that still records three-quarters of its data on papers. This and now lack of awareness, inadequate diagnostic facilities, lack of treatment facilities and the high cost of the treatment itself contributes largely to the 7% deaths per year.

Think about this... A country with a population of close to 50 million people relying on four radiation centers, two main and two limited treatment facilities, four radiation oncologists, six medical ones, four pediatric ones (which says a lot about why only 1 in 10 children in Kenya survive cancer), five radiation therapy technologists, three oncology nurses and two medical physicists. Need I say more?

Images, Pixabay.

This piece was inspired by one @mariannewest through the daily prompt. It took me down the memory lane and the lessons I have gained from such :)

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