Lynn Wanjiku, an eight-year-old girl battling blood cancer has called on well-wishers to help her raise funds for treatment in India.
According to her mother Nancy Wanjiru, Wanjiku was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a fast-progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow, early this year.
She added that her daughter has been unable to continue with her studies since March this year, as the condition continues to deteriorate.
In an interview with The Star newspaper, Wanjiku who has been in and out of Kenyatta National Hospital for chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments, revealed that it all started in December last year when she started experiencing a slight pain in the leg.
“When the pain started, we gave her pain killers, hoping it would go away, but it persisted and at some point, she couldn’t walk,” Wanjiku’s mother Nancy Wanjiru says.
“This was around April, so we decided to do an X-ray, hoping it was just a fracture on the leg,” she added.
Unfortunately, the results did not show anything forcing the family to consult a pediatrician. At this point, Wanjiku had lost a lot of weight, turned very pale and her red blood cells were very low.
After some tests, the pediatrician referred the family to an oncologist for more tests. While Wanjiku’s father, a medical expert had a clue of what was happening, he remained silent and let the doctors make a conclusive diagnosis.
“He would exchange some jargon with the doctor, which I believe was to help them buy time before they could break the dreaded news,” Wanjiru says.
After a series of tests, the doctor confirmed that Wanjiku had Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. AML is a fast-progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow, where immature myeloid cells or blasts multiply rapidly, crowding out the healthy blood cells.
On May 17, she was admitted to the children’s cancer ward where she had been undergoing rigorous treatment to ease the pain.
“Some chemo sessions lasted through the night, and this meant staying up to watch her. We had to sell our car just to cover some of the oncological medical costs after SHA failed us three times,” the mother of four says.
The family is now seeking for help to airlift Wanjiku to India for a bone marrow transplant. According to them, the procedure is estimated to cost Sh9 million including pre- and post-recovery tests.
“Lynn will be required to undergo tests afresh in India, and she will also be required to finish all her chemotherapy cycles before the bone marrow treatment starts,” Wanjiru says.
The family has so far managed to raise Sh5 million through fundraising at the Nairobi East SDA church and is now calling on well wishers to help them raise the remaining Sh4 million via Paybill number 400200, account number 511417.
Understanding bone marrow transplant
Bone marrow transplant is a procedure that infuses healthy blood-forming stem cells into a patient’s body to replace bone marrow that’s not producing enough healthy blood cells.
The healthy cells can come from a donor or the patient’s own body, and they are infused after high-dose chemotherapy or radiation has been used to destroy the diseased marrow. This is done to treat certain cancers, blood disorders, or immune system diseases.
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