Death of a father inspired birth of Nakuru hospice

Nakuru, Kenya: Six years after she helped establish a hospice in Nakuru town, Elizabeth Wambui Ndung’u can rest with an easy mind.

“Pity is akin to love and nothing gives me more satisfaction than interacting with scores of cancer patients who have been receiving drugs at this facility,” Elizabeth tells me as we sit in the small boardroom at the Nakuru Hospice.

This has been a personal journey for Elizabeth who, in 2005, watched helplessly as prostate cancer painfully wasted her father Arthur Ndung’u and drove him to an early grave.

“My father died in so much pain and I prayed that God would open a way for us to help other people with cancer receive palliative care,” says Elizabeth.

She says in the days after her father’s death, she felt restless every time she saw anyone enduring pain she knew a hospice could make bearable.

Elizabeth, an accountant, decided she had to do something quickly. She quit her job and embarked on the task of finding out how a hospice could be established in Nakuru town, in spite of her financial limitations.

She shared her idea with Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association, Hospice Kenya, the Administration of the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital and other individuals and organisations. Many responded positively “and this gave me a glimmer of hope”.

“My dream would definitely have come to nothing if not for them. They gave us moral and financial support,” she says.

The organisations included Safaricom Foundation, Co-operative Bank, Hospice UK, Chase Bank, Kenya Power Company, Lions Club of Nakuru, the Nakuru Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and Max Foundation, among others.

Elizabeth’s dream was realised in 2009, when the hospice was finally up and running complete with a board to oversee management matters. Then tragedy struck last year – thugs shot dead the treasurer, J S Shah, and his wife.The facility was also affected by the death of a reliable and generous foreign donor, who succumbed to cancer.

The hospice does not admit patients but mainly serves as a day-care centre for patients from a vast catchment area that includes Laikipia and Kericho counties.

Hospice volunteers also make home visits to deliver drugs to patients who are unable to visit the hospital regularly due to lack of transport or because they are too weak to make the trip.

The staff also provide counselling services for patients and their relatives.

Sometimes, says Elizabeth, the hospice runs low on cancer drugs due to the overwhelming numbers of those seeking treatment.

“Since our donor died, we are unable to pay for the drugs we ordered.”

Although situated at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital, the hospice is not funded by the Government and depends on donations from well-wishers.

The hospice has registered about 2,000 outpatients since it was established and the numbers continue to rise.

Government records indicate that about 80,000 cases of cancer are reported annually in the country and about 18,000 people die from the disease every year.

Many of the cases reported in most parts of the country include breast, cervical, oesophagal, liver and stomach cancers.

Currently, only Kenyatta National Hospital gives hope to poor Kenyans as seeking chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment in private hospitals is beyond the reach of many.

Elizabeth says the facility “is a community project that relies on the goodwill of generous members of the society” and hopes that more and more people will be touched to help the facility in small or big ways.

While organising a walk to raise funds for the hospice recently, Elizabeth was optimistic that Kenyans, in their usual generosity, would give towards helping their brothers and sisters cope with the pain.

“Each of us has a duty to care for poor victims of cancer and other diseases so that we can help make their lives bearable,” she says.