A student’s battle with cervical cancer

From Ahmad Salkida, in Maiduguri & Halima Musa, in Kano Cancer is obviously one of the most dreaded diseases on earth. It takes a shocking toll on bodily injury, leading to deaths in most cases, especially now, in our 21st century. Because of the nature and inherent cost of managing the disease, the person who […]

From Ahmad Salkida, in Maiduguri & Halima Musa, in Kano

Cancer is obviously one of the most dreaded diseases on earth. It takes a shocking toll on bodily injury, leading to deaths in most cases, especially now, in our 21st century. Because of the nature and inherent cost of managing the disease, the person who discovered some form of it, usually undergoes severe emotional trauma. Same with the victim’s loved ones.

For Mercy Ibrahim, a 21-year-old cervical cancer patient, life, without doubt, had proven to be unpredictable. In November 2004, when she was barely 17, she lost her mother who watched her under a moral microscope in a world full of preying eyes for pretty young girls like her. Her father, a classroom teacher, was always at work or catching up with other busy schedules to make ends meet. He was determined to sponsor his six children to high education.

According to Mercy’s friends, the death of her mother somehow affected her performance when she sat for her Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination in 2005. She would later gain admission into the University of Maiduguri to study Anatomy.  

Mercy’s sickness started when she began to experience difficulty in passing stool. “I complained and after medical check-ups, it was discovered that the flips around my anal area were destroyed by what was initially thought to be a tumour, but ended up as cervical cancer,” she explained. Mercy then underwent surgery at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, “the process was to remove my entire anal area and open up a colostomy in my abdomen.”

That procedure somehow lessens the pain and the daily humiliation Mercy was facing in performing the common task of passing faeces. Now, an alternative stool passage was made for her to enable her pass stool with some ease. But gradually, her case became more serious and doctors at the UMTH referred her to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria for further treatment.

Mr Ibrahim Audu Balami, Mercy’s father, told our reporters that after the Maiduguri surgery, it was discovered that another growth had occurred in his daughter close to her ovaries in the vaginal area. It was from there that Dr S A. Adewuyi, a Consultant in Radiation and Clinical Oncologist, took over as there was.

“Mercy began to see signs of improvements,”  but not without pains. “I feel pain all over my body. I’m so weak and fragile because even if I force myself to eat food, I vomit it instantly. I sit and walk with severe difficulty. The whole life is pains and sorrow for me,” she stated.

A month after regularly visiting ABU, Zaria from the house of her paternal Aunty in Kano, the medical student was still in pains as her indigent father despaired likelihood that he could ever afford the  life-saving but expensive medication.

 “My doctor said I can be cured of the ailment but we need over N4 million for the treatment,” Mercy stressed.   

The hope for Mercy to be treated depends on Cyclical Chemotherapy using capecitabine (Xeloda) which is sixty thousand (60,000.00) per cycle x 12, equals to N720,000.00. While cyclical targeted therapy using Bevacizumabine- 300mg per cycle, which is 258,000.00 x 12, equals to N3,096, 000.00, not to mention other therapy that Mercy needs that may cost hundreds of thousands, Adewuyi disclosed.

According to Mercy, ever since the hospital told the family about the fees, they had written to many institutions and personalities, soliciting for assistance, but they were yet to get anything. All that came their way are stipends, though it became crucial for her to be alive today. She added that if her survival depends on what her father may raise, she will not be worried about spending another year, but she may rather begin to count her days on earth.