‘Mary’ was put on the Hospice programme in 2015 with a diagnosis of cancer of the cervix.
She had co-habited with two men and had six children, one of whom died. Five of the children, aged 9 to 16, belonged to the second. Mary never had a formal education; she was a peasant farmer.
In May 2015 she developed a vaginal discharge which had a bad smell. She went to a private clinic and was told she had syphilis. She was treated for that for some time without much improvement. In October 2015 she went to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) where a biopsy was taken and she was found to be with cancer of the cervix stage 2b. She did get the good news that she was HIV negative.
Mary was prepared for radiotherapy. She was very worried about her children, who were young and would be left while she was away. The mother was the sole person in charge of their welfare. Additionally, finding someone to go with her as a carer to Mulago was not easy. Her eldest was 26 and married, so she could not go with her.
Eventually Mary managed to get to Mulago Hospital. After the radiotherapy she was well enough to go back to her usual work but not as energetic as before her sickness. She had problems with her man who continued to drink too much and to demand sexual intercourse which was now uncomfortable.
We called Mary’s husband and talked with him, but it was not very helpful due to too much drinking. He is a toilet digger which yields little money that can support the family compared to what Mary had been earning. Her remission did not last long; after six months all her problems returned, and Mary became very ill. She had only her children to care for her and they no longer went to school which was very distressing. Making matters worse, the family had little to eat due to the long drought, which is nationwide problem, but made worse because Mary could do little work in her gardens.
Mary was a devoted Catholic and after a session of counselling, we suggested that maybe the priest could be persuaded to talk to the husband about supporting Mary and her children in this difficult time and she agreed. It did not work well because he kept avoiding the priest whenever he would come home.
Mary then developed rectal vaginal fistula and was completely bedridden. She and her two daughters who were helping her continually worried about how the family would manage when she was no longer there.
Fortunately, we were able to give Mary morphine to keep her physical pain in check.
After Mary died, the poor children who’d been with their mother through her difficult illness and death finally got some good news. After her death a good Samaritan came and agreed to support all the children in Hospice’s Give a Chance programme that fund boarding school for the children of Hospice patients who have died. They are now in school except one girl who refused; her siblings said that she got married.
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