Hope for girl with cancer as Radio Maisha comes to her rescue

Dorcas Nyaboke with her daughter Judith Kwamboka after undergoing chemotherapy at Texas cancer Centre in Nairobi. Radio Maisha mobilised Sh1million for her treatment. (Photo: Edward Kiplimo/Standard)

Four months ago, Judy Kwamboka, 14, woke up and told her mother she did not want to go to school. She complained of a severe headache and said she had nose bled the whole night. The class seven pupil at Ibara Primary in Kisii County had been telling her mother she was having dizzy spells and difficulty in breathing.

"I would buy her painkillers, and hope she will feel better," says her mother Dorka Nyaboke.

Judy's condition worsened. Her mother took her to Nyamira Hospital where a doctor noticed a small lump inside her nose.

The doctor advised Nyaboke to buy her daughter antibiotics to shrink the lump. But the pain intensified.

"Some nights she would not sleep. She would hold her head, and cry in pain, begging us to make the pain stop," says her father Charles Ogetogeto.

Her parents embarked on a search for answers. In November, they took her back to hospital, and a doctor poked on the swelling inside her nose, hoping to drain it. What happened next threw Judy's parents into confusion and panic. Her nose started swelling; a strange form of swelling where skin cells seemed to be piling on each other, and growing at a rapid pace.

"She was so much pain she could not even lift her jaws to talk," recalls her mother.

When they took her to Kenyatta National Hospital, doctors had a diagnosis. She had a rare form of cancer that attacks the nose.

Dr Erick Kanjama, medical officer at Texas Cancer Centre says cancer is rare in children.

"Judy has nose cancer which is very rare, but she is on radio therapy and chemotherapy," he says.

Her mother says the event that led to her treatment can only be described as a miracle.

After the cancer diagnosis, Nyaboke says they sank into depression. They had no money to start treatment, yet her nose kept growing. As an avid listener of Radio Maisha, she decided to take a chance and approach them for help.

"Help me, please save my daughter," Nyaboke told the Radio Maisha administrators.

And they did. They set up a fund raising campaign to save Judy that raised Sh1 million. Judy was admitted to Texas Cancer Centre where she is receiving treatment. Doctors hope she will be cancer free.

Judy is grateful to Kenyans who contributed through Radio Maisha.