I came to Texas Cancer Centre in 2016 after three years of treatment for cervical cancer, stage four. I was diagnosed in 2014 after months of illnesses which doctors could not really detect. This is because when I first when set foot in hospital, I went in for gynaecological reasons. Unlike previous years when my menstrual cycles were consistent, I began noticing irregular patterns. At times I would bleed for longer or even miss it altogether. This worried me a lot. At the gynae, I was told that the irregularity in my cycle was as a result of menopause, given that I am 61 year, and therefore ought to have been nothing of worry to me. Although I took the medication given through the rest of 2013 I was still worried and I was not responding to the medication given. To top this, I was in excruciating pain unlike my younger years. This scared me and sought a second opinion, since I felt my gynae was not giving me all the answers I sought. In June 2014, I consulted with a friend who took me to a different doctor for the second opinion. In January 2015, a number of tests were done to determine the exact problem. After all the tests, the results were brought to me in the ward and before even seeing the consultant, I read the report on my own. All I can remember reading toward the end of the report was “CA growth” and even though I was a layman, I deduced that it was cancer, which was then confirmed by the consultant doctor who was to see me later that evening. It was in that hospital bed that I met the consultant, Texas Cancer Centre’s Dr Catherine Nyongesa, a pleasant doctor whose re-assurance gave me hope for better years ahead. The doctor not only gave me a shoulder to lean on but immediately put me on treatment. Of course I know about the long queues at Kenyatta and it was a cause of worry for me, until I learnt about Texas Cancer Centre. With the help of NHIF cards, I was able to start my treatment at TCC.

I came from neighbouring Uganda,two years ago. I started having persistent daily headaches whose root cause took me about one-and-a-half-years to discover. So bad were the headaches that a friend advised me to go get a CT scan which showed I had a tumor in the head and was told to go to Kampala from Jinja. In Kampala, doctors decided to do a biopsy which showed that the tumor was cancerous which had not spread. I got a referral to the Kampala Cancer Institute, where I kicked off my first of four sessions of chemotherapy. When I completed my chemo, the doctors recommended radiotherapy which unfortunately I could not get as the machines had broken down, hence being referred to Nairobi. At first, we had opted for a different hospital until friends recommended Texas Cancer Centre to us. From the time I came here, I have seen a lot of improvement and change in my body.