Lonely diseases: The miserable patients Kenyans wish they could forget

The calmness on Queen Kwamboka’s face as she strolls around her Kayole Estate neighbourhood in Nairobi to kill boredom one evening is deceptive. The 48-year-old woman’s heart bleeds with loneliness, low esteem and the stigma of neurofibromatosis disease -- a tumour that grows along a nerve in any part of the body.
The tumour looks like rubber balls protruding from her legs and buttocks, making it hard for her to walk and indulge in normal activities.

She is in agony and mentally tormented.
“I feel terribly embarrassed by my condition. At times, when people talk whenever I am passing by, I assume they are talking about me,” said Kwamboka, looking all stressed up.