Catherine Nyongesa, a Kenyan billionaire businesswoman is a testament that you do not need a silver spoon to achieve great things in life.
Despite growing up in abject poverty, the founder of Texas Cancer Centre has proved that anything is achievable with hard work and determination.
Born in 1970 in Ebosiso Village in Bungoma County, Dr. Nyongesa is the firstborn in a family of ten children. Her parents eked a living by engaging in odd jobs to support their family.
With a dream of becoming a doctor, Dr. Nyongesa attended Misikhu Girls Secondary School, supported by well-wishers who recognized her potential.
She excelled in her studies, earning a spot at the University of Nairobi to pursue a Bachelor of medicine and surgery degree.
The seed of becoming an oncologist was ingrained in her when her sister got diagnosed with cancer, choriocarcinoma.
After graduating and interning at Kakamega, she moved back to Nairobi and was employed at the Kenyatta National Hospital.
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Thereafter, she joined South Africa’s University of Witwatersrand to pursue a Master of Medicine in Radiation Oncology. Upon graduating, she returned to Kenya and was employed at Kenyatta National Hospital as a consultant radiation oncologist.
In 2010, Dr. Nyongesa teamed up with her husband to establish Texas Cancer Center in Nairobi.
Her husband had worked as a pharmacist in Texas for a long time, her last born was born in Texas, and the largest cancer center is in Texas; hence, the reason they named the Hospital Texas.
According to its website, the health facility at first offered outpatient chemotherapy services. The couple then borrowed Sh100 million to build an inpatient centre in Nairobi.
They acquired special machines such as radiotherapy, x-ray, and ultrasound equipment with assistance from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, US.
The facility has since expanded to other parts of Kenya, including Nairobi and Eldoret. Among the services offered are pain and palliative care, cancer testing and screening, chemotherapy, linear accelerator radiotherapy, radioactive iodine treatment, nutrition, and physiotherapy.
In 2017, Dr. Nyongesa was named by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) as among the few women on the high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) list.
Besides managing Texas Cancer Centre, the businesswoman serves as the chairperson of the Kenya Society of Hematology and Oncology (KESHO). She is also an honorary lecturer at the University of Nairobi.
