Jane Waithera during an interview with Ghetto Radio
Somewhere behind the walls of Kenyatta National Hospital at the pediatric oncology ward a group of children diagnosed with cancer are staying together.
Aged between three and 12 years some of these children are in utter pain that they can barely get up from their beds while others take the little chance of life they have to be happy.
The ward’s nurse Angela Nguyu says despite the pain that comes with cancer and the uncertainty of their health, these children are nothing but fighters.
Inside the ward the nurses basically act as the sole guardians of these children. They do everything for them including bathing them and playing with them.
Jane Waithera’s daughter Charity Murugi’s who is 12 years old is among the 24 children admitted in the ward with cancer. Waithera says what started off as a small growth on the leg quickly developed into cancer within one month of the growth’s removal.
Three weeks after Waithera’s daughter admission into the hospital, she is yet to get the surgery she is supposed to have due to the lack of blood in the hospital’s blood bank.
And in taking care of children like Waithera’s daughter nurse Nguyu says, most nurses have personally been attached to the children and have found it very difficult to let them go when the disease finally has to take the child.
But for Waithera, as her daughter battles with the disease ranked as the third cause of death after infectious diseases and HIV Aids she has no choice but to stay strong for her daughter.
AUTHOR: CLARET ADHIAMBO