The following is an account given by Dr Helena; permission has been granted by the patient...

Help was requested in the National press for this lady from Erute, Internally displaced camp (IDP). She was transferred to Hope Ward for help.

Joanna is a mother from one of the IDP camps. For 6 years she had noticed a swelling in the left cheek which was growing slowly until her face became double the size! But what help could she get from the camps? She was noticed by a journalist who found her naked and starving in a corner of the camp.

He immediately advertised asking for help in a newspaper and one of the IHK staff told me about the article – I think this is just the patient for you and Hope Ward – she looks like she has cancer. So I thought “OK” lets see what we can do:

She was so dehydrated when she arrived that I wondered whether we would ever be able to give any treatment. I then gave her radiotherapy (XR treatment – responded well) and pain control.

When she left the ward– we both knew that the cancer was not curable but only controllable for a time. Sometimes we have to focus on quality as well as quantity of life.

I will never forget what she said ‘Even my family had given up on me – they told me why are those people bothering with you if you are going to die? If only the sponsors understood how much this treatment has meant to me…Thank you for giving me back my dignity, giving me hope and making me feel human again’ – we both had tears in our eyes.