Cry of 8-year-old: Help me beat this cancer monster

Lynn Wanjiku at her home in Chokaa, Nairobi - CLARET ADHIAMBO

The journey to India is long and arduous, but eight-year-old Lynn Wanjiku is willing to take it to not only restore her health but her childhood as well.

Her life was immediately disrupted, as she has not been able to go to school or play with other children since March.

The better part of this year was spent at the Kenyatta National Hospital, undergoing rigorous chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments.

“I am afraid of getting into a plane because I have heard of crashes, but I want to get better and go back to school and have sleepovers with my friends,” Wanjiku says during an interview with the Star.

She remembers the smallest details of her journey with the disease, from the last day she was in school to the first day she received her first dose of chemotherapy.

“Mum, I was admitted to hospital on May 17,” she reminded her mother of the date during the interview.
What started as slight pain in the leg in December last year quickly morphed into a disease that saw her admitted for three months at KNH.

“When the pain started, we gave her pain killers, hoping it would go away, but it persisted and at some point, she couldn’t walk,” Wanjiku’s mother Nancy Wanjiru says.

“This was around April, so we decided to do an X-ray, hoping it was just a fracture on the leg.”

DREADED DIAGNOSIS

Unfortunately the results did not reveal anything, so the family decided to consult a paediatrician.

“The paediatrician at the hospital recommended some tests and asked us to go back after 10 days,” Wanjiru says.

At this point, she had lost a lot of weight, turned very pale and her red blood cells were very low.
The paediatrician then referred them to an oncologist for more tests.

Wanjiku’s father, who is more knowledgeable on medical matters, already had a clue of what could be the problem, but he preferred to let the doctors make the conclusive diagnosis, Wanjiru says.

“He would exchange some jargon with the doctor, which I believe was to help them buy time before they could break the dreaded news,” Wanjiru says.

After a series of tests, the doctor confirmed that Wanjiku had Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a diagnosis that would send the family into total disarray.

AML is a fast-progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow, where immature myeloid cells or blasts multiply rapidly, crowding out the healthy blood cells.

On May 17, Wanjiku was admitted to the children’s cancer ward, and her mother was forced to leave her job to become a full-time caregiver.

“Her pain became mine and I had to fix my schedule to fit hers. If she wakes up sick, I have to abandon everything to attend to her,” Wanjiru says.

“Some chemo sessions lasted through the night, and this meant staying up to watch her.”

Regardless of her psychological state, Wanjiru says, she not only has to show up for Wanjiku but for her other three children as well.

BROKEN HEALTH SYSTEM

The family’s savings were depleted and they resorted to loans and credits from friends.

The Social Health Authority scheme also failed them, forcing them to pay for some of the services out of their pockets.

“We had to sell our car just to cover some of the oncological medical costs after SHA failed us three times,” the mother of four says.

On November 11, patients, survivors and caregivers petitioned Parliament, demanding adjustment of the annual limit in the SHA cover.

They claim the medical scheme gets depleted within months.

Currently, cancer patients are covered to the tune of Sh550,000 per household per year, down from the Sh600,000 which was offered under the defunct National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).

Kenco said most families are forced to shoulder heavy burdens or abandon treatment midway.

It is after many consultations and research during Wanjiku’s admission at the hospital that the family decided to take her to India for a bone marrow transplant.

Bone marrow transplant is a procedure that infuses healthy blood-forming stem cells into your body to replace bone marrow that’s not producing enough healthy blood cells.

Bone marrow transplants may use cells from your own body (autologous transplant) or from a donor (allogeneic transplant).

Immediately, a series of tests on her two siblings started, and it is her 12-year-old sister who became a 100 per cent match.

“Her brother was halfway but her older sister is a full match, which was a relief for us because it gave us hope for our baby’s recovery,” Wanjiru says.

The elephant in the room would be to raise the Sh9 million needed for the procedure. The estimated cost included pre- and post-recovery tests.

“Lynn will be required to undergo tests afresh in India, and she will also be required to finish all her chemotherapy cycles before the bone marrow treatment starts,” Wanjiru says.

To save on costs, she will first travel to India with her mother and do all the tests before her sister, the donor, follows them.

FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN

With the family’s savings depleted, Wanjiku’s parents started an aggressive fundraising campaign at the Nairobi East SDA church, on social media and on mainstream media.

“We wanted to maximise on all avenues because we were running out of time,” Wanjiru says.

“To make this possible, we created posters and a short video message of Wanjiku appealing for funds.”

The ultimate fundraiser at the Nairobi Central SDA Church on October 5 saw the family raise Sh5 million — Sh4 million short of the target.

“We are greatly indebted to our family members, friends and church members who showed up and helped us raise this amount,” she says.

“And these friends not only came through during the fundraiser. They showed up when we needed blood donations. At some point, the hospital asked us to tell our donors to stop coming.”

Wanjiku says she wants to become an oncologist, a resolve that was inspired by her long stay in hospital.

“Hospitals are boring and no child deserves to stay in hospital for as long as I did,” she says.

“That is why I want to be an oncologist to save people, especially children, from cancer.”

To bridge the deficit in funding, her mother is appealing to well-wishers to give to Paybill number 400200, account number 511417.

Kenya records more than 3,000 cases of childhood cancer annually, roughly eight to nine new diagnoses each day. Yet, most of these cases are discovered in advanced stages, when the disease is harder to treat and survival prospects are minimal.

In a past interview with the Star, KNH paediatric haematologist Dr Catherine Muendo said the hospital receives about 350 new childhood cancer cases every year, a figure that may only represent a fraction of the real burden.

“In a week, our two paediatric cancer wards may have up to 80 children,” she said.

“Mondays are the busiest because it’s clinic day, and we could attend to as many as 70 children.”

Muendo said Kenya should be diagnosing around 4,500 childhood cancer cases annually, but only about 3,500 are reported.