Simon Ng’ang’a reclines on a seat in his office at Nyamweru Secondary School in Lari sub-county, where he is the principal.

He is alone and in deep thought. Death was close a few months back. His kidneys were failing and he needed millions of shillings for an operation to save his life.

Now he only has memories of that dark period in his life when he was grasping on straws.

His students offered him help and saved his life. They made mandazi which they sold in a bid to raise Sh2.4 million for his treatment.

Doctors diagnosed him with “end-stage kidney disease”, where both his kidneys were working below 20 per cent capacity.

He bites his lower lip. News of the disease hit him hard. It was shocking for Mr Ng’ang’a since nobody in his family ever had such a condition.

SEEKING TREATMENT

“I was diagnosed with the disease in June 2009 at a private clinic in Nakuru, and I immediately started seeking treatment and ways of managing the disease,” he says.

He underwent his first operation in the same year to prepare his body for dialysis to clean his kidneys of they toxins they could not naturally excrete.

“I went for dialysis twice a week until March 2010, with each session taking four hours in Nakuru. From March 2010, my doctor allowed me to go for dialysis at a hospital in Nairobi. I went there until April 2014,” he says.

He started treatment in Nakuru, where his family home and family doctor were, but later moved to a convenient hospital in Nairobi since he works in Lari, Kiambu.

He remembers how his body changed.

Mr Ng’ang’a looked sickly. He could not teach more than one lesson, and would spend most of the time seated.

He had difficulty breathing as toxins were not excreted by the kidneys

The teacher would go to bed in the evening with swollen feet and wake up in the morning with a swollen face.

“I later learnt that the heart of a kidney failure patient usually has difficulty in ensuring optimum circulation of blood in the body, hence the swelling of some body parts,” says Mr Ng’ang’a.

Since 2009, when he was diagnosed with kidney failure, Mr Ng’ang’a planned to have a kidney transplant but he could not find a suitable donor.

He searched for a donor even as the tiring dialysis procedures went on every two days.

“Three donors who volunteered were disqualified due to incompatibility. They had a low Glomerular filtration rate, which meant their lives would not be sustained with one kidney if they donated the other,” he says.

The savings he had accumulated over years were spent on medical care. Dialysis costs Sh9,500 a session. From time to time, he needed an injection to help in blood formation. Each 200mg injection cost Sh2,500, while an injection to boost iron cost Sh1,500.

In December 2013, Mr Ng’ang’a suffered a serious health condition, where his haemoglobin count was as low as six instead of 13.

He was quickly admitted to the Nakuru Memorial Hospital because of this, and other complications.

The attack meant that he needed urgent medical attention and a quick kidney transplant or else he would die.

SEARCH FOR DONOR

The cost of a transplant was high, and it was difficult to get a suitable and compatible donor for Mr Ng’ang’a.

Many feared that the war was about to be lost, until Mr Ng’ang’a’s elder sister, Ms Mary Wanjiru, volunteered her kidney.

This was followed by waiting to see whether the sister was a compatible donor. Tests were conducted and she was found to be a suitable donor.

Without wasting time, in January 2014, preparations began on how the donor and recipient would undergo the operation in India, but there was one hitch.

The operation would cost Sh1.4 million. Taking into account accommodation and air fare, the total cost stood at Sh2.4 million.

Mr Ng’ang’a shared his predicament with school heads in Lari sub-county. Through the Lari headteachers’ association, his colleagues committed themselves to raising the required Sh2.4 million.

The association divided the people who would offer financial help into clusters of headteachers, relatives, friends, teachers, students and schools.

Nyamweru Secondary School Deputy Principal Alice Muchiri was to make sure the students and the school raised their target amount.

SOLD MANDAZI

Day students would go home and ask for money from their parents and relatives, while boarders decided to make mandazi in the evening and sell them at school during tea break.

“Imagine students using their little free time in school to make mandazi to help their sick principal. Is that not touching?” said Mr Ng’ang’a.

News of students at Nyamweru Secondary School making mandazi and selling them to raise money for their sick principal touched the hearts of many.

Even Mr Ng’ang’a’s former students at Naaro Secondary School in Murang’a, where he was a teacher, raised Sh400,000.

“I later learnt that my former students at Naaro have a Facebook page for the alumni and they shared my predicament on the platform. Students who were in the country and others abroad sent their contributions towards my surgery.”

“I was so touched,” he adds.

Other former students of two schools where he taught, Njabini Boys and Mungari Secondary, also sent their contributions.

“One of the doctors who treated me in Kenya heard about the harambee and told me, ‘I am sending you my mandazi.’ He sent me some money.”

The mandazi drive managed to raise Sh47,000 towards the principal’s surgery.

The main harambee was held at Kiboko Hotel in Limuru on 4 April 2014, and the contributions exceeded the Sh2.4 million target.