It is now five years since Miriam Mwikali Mutua, 30, was declared cancer-free by doctors at Kenyatta National Hospital. Her battle against cancer had lasted for close to two decades. It all started when she was 11 years old in early 1999. “I was in Class Five when my body started feeling weak. I began experiencing severe head and stomach aches, and persistent nausea,” she says.
Although it was evident to her parents that something was wrong, they couldn’t pinpoint the cause of it. To get rid of the pain, Miriam would take over-the-counter pain killers. In September 1999, things started getting worse.
“I woke up one day and while taking a shower, I noticed that the right side of my stomach was hard compared to the left. It also felt like something that felt like a golf ball was swollen inside my stomach,” says the married mother of two. Miriam thought of telling her parents, but went against the idea. “I was naïve, and felt guilty that perhaps I was giving them too many problems,” she says.
As days went by, her pain became unbearable and she told her parents. A few days later, her mother took her to a herbalist who administered some medications. “They were a bitter concoction that took a lot of nerves to swallow. But I braved through them in hope that they would ease my pain. They didn’t!” she says. She was taken to a few local hospitals where she was given more medications.
By mid-1999, her condition had become so dire that her urine mostly contained blood. “It also had small, meaty particles that looked like balls of clotted blood. At first, I brushed it off as early menstruation. But a week later, it was still coming out,” she says. Miriam told her mother about her deteriorated condition and she was rushed to hospital where she also revealed about the lump on the right side of her stomach.
Upon examination and treatment, she was referred to Kenyatta National Hospital in November 1999, where she underwent a series of tests, x-rays, and ultra sound scans. “Unfortunately, these did not pinpoint what was ailing me. The doctors sent me to MP Shah Hospital to have a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan done on me.”
The MRI revealed what Miriam had been ailing from. “It showed that I had developed a cancerous tumour that was affecting my right kidney and threatening to spread to my lungs.”
The cancer was diagnosed as Wilms tumour, that starts in the kidneys, and which is the most common type of cancer in children. Unfortunately for Miriam, the cancer was in its fourth stage. But her parents did not lose hope.
The doctors immediately admitted her and began chemotherapy sessions. “It is a painful experience. My hair fell off. I was always vomiting. My immunity went down.
My red blood cells were so low that I had to take supplements to increase the quantity of my blood levels,” she says. In April 2000, she underwent a surgery to remove her right kidney. Then she went back to chemotherapy. Then radiotherapy followed.
“I missed school for the whole of year 2000. My life became stressful and bitter; I couldn’t understand why I had to go all through this. I felt unworthy, unattractive, and wondered how my future would be. I became introverted and often isolated myself. I even wondered if any man would be able and genuinely willing to marry a cancer survivor with one kidney like me.”
To make matters worse, in July 2000, when she was supposed to be discharged from the hospital, her final chemotherapy session was administered wrongly. Her hand was seriously wounded. The doctors extended her stay and corrective surgery was undertaken.
Over the next 13 years, Miriam became a regular at KNH, where she went for monitoring and clinics. The effects of her chemotherapy and radiotherapy sessions lasted long afterwards.
"In high school, I developed oedema – a build-up of fluids that cause swelling in parts of the body. My legs swelled and I had to wear compression stockings, which further elicited ridicule from some of my fellow students." In October 2013, she got the good news she had been praying for. "I can still remember the words my doctor said. He said, Miriam, you are cancer free. You can stop coming for check-ups, unless you develop any complications!" she says with a smile.
“Today, I wear the scar on my hand as a tattoo that reminds me that I beat cancer."
Over the period that she went for check-ups at KNH, Miriam met Samuel Muendo, the man who would become her husband. “I had already completed my treatment and was only going to KNH for check-ups when I met him,” she says. “I revealed what I had gone through so that he’d know the kind of woman he was going to be with.”
Miriam says she can still remember his reaction. “He took my hand, looked me in the face, and told me that he would stick by me regardless of how rough or merry life would ever get,” she says. On December 20, 2014, the two love birds got married, and in July 2015, they were blessed with their first daughter.
Earlier this year in February, they were blessed with their second girl. Today, Miriam works as a professional social worker.
“I hope that my story will reach someone battling with a terminal illness. I pray that they can know it is not the end of the road. There is a new day if they can hold on and not lose hope,” she says.
