Warrior who won’t relent in fight against cancer

It is a Wednesday morning and I have to wait for a few hours as she attends to clients visiting her office at the Hamisi Sub-county Hospital in Vihiga County.

This is one of the busy days for Ms Eunice Javoga, a research assistant and coordinator of Armpath Oncology. The 48-year-old is a cervical cancer warrior and an advocate against the disease.

She is attending to a primary school pupil brought to the facility by a sister and her school matron for further breast cancer tests.

It is what she has done since 2019, with her work taking her to some of the remotest parts of Vihiga County, in an effort to ensure local women and girls are aware of the dangers of cancer and are tested regularly. This ensures early diagnosis, increasing chances of getting early treatment.

“I also coordinate and facilitate cervical and breast cancer sensitization, screening and follow up talks. I take screening results, call the clients to explain what is needed in their journey of treatment and facilitate treatment by referring them to referral hospitals,” she adds.

Her calling into this work didn’t come by chance. Ms Javoga’s passion in this journey came after she came face to face with the grim reality of cervical cancer.

Bleeding in between periods

“I was diagnosed with stage 2BI cancer in 2014. It was the worst feeling I’ve ever had. It started off as bleeding in between periods. I experienced abdominal pain on and off- backaches, and that’s when I went for screening.”

After going through a biopsy, the results came out positive but luckily for her, the cancer had not spread into the tissues of the cervix.

“So in 2015, I went through surgery and the affected parts were removed. I continued with the follow up but after a few months, I had recovered,” she says.

But then when she thought the nightmare was over in 2019, she got another scare.

“My immunity was dwindling and I was not feeling well. I however, worked as usual and wasn’t feeling any pain. After going to hospital, tests revealed that I had another mass on the right side of my belly and the doctors were worried it could be cancerous.”

So she went for another two-hour surgery.

“I was scared of going under the knife once more. The first experience was bad and I ended up in the ICU for two hours as my blood pressure went down. I thought I would relive that experience,” she adds.

Fortunately, this time things went smoothly and after the removal of the mass, she regained strength after three months.

It was after this experience that she decided to toss herself in the fight against the disease, especially cervical cancer.

“I remember the first time I found out I was really scared. There was this particular time I was already in cancer ward and a nurse walked in and asked, which cancer do you suffer from and that’s when it dawned on me that I was ill,” she says.

She recalls how she once fell down and began crying after the doctor told her the results were positive.

“I fell and began crying, walking in corridors screaming that I would die. All I could think about was my four children who were very young then. I started planning on distributing them to my relatives,” she says.

According to Ms Javoga, she wouldn’t have made it through without counselling. She talks of the fear she had regarding the treatment.

“My fear was going through chemotherapy and brachytherapy, which are very invasive and aggressive to the body. But luckily for me, surgery was enough,” she says.

According to her, it is this same experience many women diagnosed with cervical cancer go through and for that, she wanted to make a difference by preparing the patients for the whole process.

Poverty

“This is usually an experience coupled with pain, suffering and fear for the patients, thus they need a shoulder to lean on,” she says.

Though her impact continues to be felt in the area she operates, it has been far from easy.

“It is disheartening to see women die from these diseases because of poverty. For many, even just coming to hospital for the tests is expensive,” she explains.

Despite biopsy and other tests being carried out in some hospitals for free, she says patients have to pay to get the results.

“And many cannot afford. So they don’t come for the results and for those who end up testing positive, the worst is imminent,” she says.

She has also faced challenges in her effort to sensitize women about cancer.

“Breast and cervical tests are usually very invasive and for women who still hold to the tradition that no one is supposed to inspect their private parts other than their husbands, it becomes a challenge to convince them to be tested. They have to get permission from their husbands for that to happen, a process that could take forever and by the time they get to hospital, the cancer is irreversible,” she adds.

But despite these hurdles, her work is being felt from every corner of the county and she says she won’t relent in her fight against cancer and especially that of the cervix.

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