A breast-cancer patient in Ndola’s Kaloko Township of Bwana Mkubwa Constituency is struggling to get treatment due financial challenges.
42-year old Mercy Mwewa, who had tumor on the right breast, has appealed for financial assistance to enable her continue cancer treatment in Lusaka.
This information came to light when Independent Bwana Mkubwa Member of Parliament Warren Chisha Mwambazi donated a wheelchair to Ms. Mwewa at her home in Kaloko.
Cancer has confined Ms Mwewa in the house for more than six months.
Mwambazi donated a wheelchair to Ms Mwewa with food stuff and blankets.
Ms. Mwewa thanked Mr. Mwambazi for the donation and asked for further help to enable her get treatment.
“I am very happy to receive the wheelchair because I am now able to come outside the house. Today I am able to see outside and now my child will be moving me outside unlike in the past. I thank all who have brought me this wheelchair they have done a good job. May God bless them,” Ms. Mwewa told reporters with difficulties.
“Let them also help me to buy divine none medication for my problem. The medicine will help me recover. Let them just buy me four bottles of the medicine, it is K750 each. Please let them help me the same way they have helped me with the wheelchair. May God touch them to help me. Please people help me,” she said.
Mr. Mwambazi said leaders such as councilors and Members of Parliament have a duty to help the needy in society.
“We are here in Kaloko Ward this morning to visit a community member who has been suffering after undergoing two operations due to breast Cancer. We in the company of area councilor Mathew Musonda delivered some food stuffs to help her and her family. We also gave her a wheelchair to help with Mobility. This is our mother, she is from the constituency and our ward so when we saw his appeal on news, I think it was imperative that we just come and visit looking at her condition so that we can help. These people are relying on us civic leaders as Members of Parliament, there Councilors so that we can see how we can render help,” Mr. Mwambazi said.
“You can see she is in pain and she has been suffering for a long time. She has done chemotherapy, she can’t walk so we thought let is help her with a wheelchair so that even people who are helping her can have easy access because she was just being lifted. Now they can have access to move in and out of the house. I also came with the councilor because he is always there in the ward so going forward he can be coming to check on her, we give her some supplies, from the clinic they can give us some pain killers and bandages. It is a very sad situation but for us we have come to see what we can do and help,” Mr. Mwambazi said.
Meanwhile, Ms. Mwewa discovered her condition in 2018 after giving birth to her sixth child and she underwent surgical operation at Ndola Teaching Hospital.
She explained that in 2019 she observed a growth on the breast which had been operated on and upon bringing to the attention of hospital staff.
Ms. Mwewa was transferred to Lusaka for treatment.
She said her husband abandoned her six months ago after giving birth to a visually impaired child whom she has since given out for foster care to the Social Welfare Office
Ms. Mwewa says her firstborn son aged 17 who is in grade 10 and is visually impaired has since dropped out of school to nurse her since her health has deteriorated.
This story makes me sad, but then it’s also an indictment of our health service delivery system. Why should people be appealing for help when they have already been through a hospital as big as Ndola Teaching Hospital? This shows that our referral system doesn’t work. What’s the function of NHIMA? We were told that it was going to cater for vulnerable people like this lady. Now I’m told that the lowly paid are being turned away because their accumulated premiums to NHIMA Can’t met the cost of their treatment. NHIMA is even failing to pay private health care providers. Is there anything that can work in Zambia? Surely would we blame this on Bally? Signs of failure at MoH are very apparent
Further, what’s the role of traditional medicine or herbs in our health delivery system? Divine Noni isn’t a medicine but people are being taken advantage of because of a lack of information. Health care providers don’t provide adequate info to their patients. In fact some even get upset when you try to peruse the patient record. Purveyors of Divine Noni promote it as a remedy for a number of illnesses that include cancer. Govt has allowed people to be taken advantage of because it has allowed these products to be advertised. If NTH failed to treat this woman she should’ve been told about her condition. Now she has false hope that Divine Noni will cure her. This is all wrong
That’s a woman who needs an operation, not a wheelchair. And sadly, she is one of many people who need help, sad that her case is only coming up because of the publicity it comes with.