By NAKUBIANA MUMBUNA and SARAH TEMBO - A NINE-YEAR-OLD girl of North-Western Province has for the past five months been nursing her 47-year-old blind mother who is admitted to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) for cancer. The girl, Cecilia Sapalo of Maheba, has been nursing her mother, Rorinda, who is blind since April 16, 2013. The girl, a grade two pupil at Maheba Primary School has during the period not been able to attend school as she alternated with her father, Raymond to look after her mother. Cecilia’s mother was diagnosed with cancer early this year in Solwezi before she was transferred to the UTH for specialist treatment. But it is the jovial girl, who is now well-known in Ward B21 who has been sleeping on her mother’s bedside as the father is not allowed to sleep in the female ward. Cecilia also cooks for her mother at the mothers’ shelter where she was also well-known by elderly women who look after their sick relatives. Some women from the mother’s shelter described the girl as active and energetic who has tirelessly been at her mother’s side since she was admitted to the institution. “That girl is strong, I have never seen so much strength in a young girl, because I tell you that girl can handle things that even me as an older woman cannot do,” one woman said. Rorinda said she was diagnosed with cancer in September 2012 in Maheba and that she became blind in 2000 after an eye infection. She said she depended on Cecelia and her husband as she had no relatives in Lusaka while well-wishers helped with food. Her husband, Raymond, who was in the company of Cecilia, said he knew no one in Lusaka and thanked the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) which had been helping them. Meanwhile, Kayula Childhood Foundation has called on the corporate world to partner with it in the fight against cancer in children. Board chairperson Likando Mangonde said this on Saturday during a fundraising event for the foundation in Lusaka. Mr Mangonde said the focus of the foundation was to prevent more children dying from cancer and related blood disorders due to lack of information and awareness. He said in its quest to fight cancer in children the foundation had built a parental home for parents who came from faraway places. “Our foundation has embarked on a programme of providing accommodation to parents and guardians during their children’s treatment in Lusaka,” he said. An eight-year-old girl, Queen Tabitha paid tribute to the Kayula foundation that three months ago helped her to fly to India to undergo specialist cancer treatment.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 13:28:24 +0000
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