Ethel Olomu, a breast cancer survivor recently shared her near death struggle with the dreaded disease at a charity even organised by M-one Events Nigeria to raise funds for cancer patients. She also spoke of her miraculous survival and how providence steered her into birthing an NGO, Engraced Life Foundation, which now helps people in similar condition. Gboyega Alaka reports.
Y nightmare
“It all started when I was going through a six-month Goldman’s Sachs Scholarship programme at the Pan African University, Lagos Business School and three weeks to my graduation. I woke up one day with a sharp pain on my left breast. My mum being a retired nurse, quickly asked me go to the hospital and a lump was confirmed. I then went for a lumpectomy surgery, which when taken to the lab for biopsy, the lump came out negative(benign. However, five weeks after, my nightmare started.
” I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, and my breast was as big as almost ten people’s heads. I couldn’t stand up. Nothing was wrong with me before I slept, and when I called the doctor that did the lumpectomy for me, he was surprised. He said ‘Okay, don’t panic, I will prescribe you a medication that you’ll take and the swollen breast will go down’. Then I was living in Port Harcourt but the programme I was doing was in Lagos, so I was shuttling between Port Harcourt and Lagos.
“Three days after, nothing happened and the breast just kept getting bigger and bigger. My friend had to book the next available flight for me to go back to Port Harcourt; but how do I get to Port Harcourt with one breast as big as Olumo rock and the other normal?
“So she went to Yaba and bought the biggest size of track suit; then she used all the wrappers in her house to make a big ball which she put on my chest, and then she took me to the airport and straight back to Port Harcourt. At the hospital, they took me back to the theatre and I went through another surgery. They called it corrective surgery. Weeks after, nothing happened; it didn’t go down. The nightmare increased, I had to change doctor and went to another hospital. They took me back to the theatre, opened me up again for another corrective surgery and I passed out. I was bleeding profusely – blood, puss, fluid. In a day, we used like twenty towels, because my breast was leaking non-stop. We did that for a few months as we kept going from one hospital to another.
Giving up for dead
“My mum is a widow of 30+ years with seven children. Someone introduced us to Alternative therapy (local herbs specialist), and they gave me all sorts of concoctions to rub and drink; I almost died, yet no solution. At a time, I was bed-ridden. And then a family friend that was working in a government hospital, alarmed, said, ‘This girl is dying here!’ So he made arrangements for samples from my breast to be taken abroad for further investigations and sponsored it. When the result came back, the doctor’s actually thought the sample was for autopsy, because this was the last stage of breast cancer and not treatable?’ But they told them the pa tient was still alive, though bedridden and almost a vegetable. So they started looking for hospitals abroad that could take me in. They sent my medical records to hospitals in India, but none was willing to accept me. They advised my family not to bother spending money because it was a hopeless case and how I might not make it to India due to my terrible condition then.
“Finally, a particular hospital accepted since we were insisting, but on the condition to deposit ten million naira cash, but with no guarantees of me surviving.
“Of course by this time, we had sold most of our valuables, begged all the beggable; so by the time they said ten million naira, my family and few remaining friends turned to begging in a bid to raise funds. They didn’t keep quiet but spoke up, looking for any possible treatment. My mum, pastors prayed non-stop for my survival .
“In the process of raising money, I studied Chemical Engineering, though I’m not practising; I love crafting a lot and God has used me to craft a lot of unique neck beads. One day, a neighbour with whom I used to talk about my customers, saw one of my customers, who at the time was an influential person, at an event. She quickly ran to meet her; she told her, ‘your friend is dying’. The lady said, ‘which of my friends?’ She told her ‘Ethel’, and she said ‘I’ve been looking for her for months; her phone number is not going through.’
“Lo and behold, that was the angel God sent to me.
“She left the event, came to the house, and when she saw me in my rotten bedridden state, she fell down and cried. She said, what’s next? We told her we were looking for ten million to go for treatment in India.
She said ‘Ok don’t worry. There is an American doctor that comes from Atlanta’; he is in town now. His name is Dr John Ojukwu; he’s in Abuja, let me talk to him. She called him and by the time she forwarded the results to him, he knew it was a bad situation and he said if you insist, bring her let me see. So they literally way-billed me to Abuja and straight to his hospital at Asokoro. When he saw me, he was in shock at my deteriorating state. What do you want me to do? Then I couldn’t talk; I was deaf and mute with pain. I was taking tramadol in sachets in a day, just to ease my pain. It is only recently I started hearing about the damaging effects of tramadol.”
Let’s see what your God can do
“Dr Ojukwu took another look at me and said ‘I see light in your eyes but I don’t know what to do’.
He said, ‘Are you a Christian?’ I just blinked in response. Then he said, ‘Let’s see what your God can do.’
“And indeed, our God did the impossible wonders through medical science (Applause). I was placed on blood transfusion for six whole weeks to stabilise me.
“By the time he gave me the third chemo, the breast shrunk. That was when he said ‘I’ll treat you.’ I ended up taking nine shots of chemotherapy. I had mastectomy and I was booked for radiotherapy in Ghana. Then there was no radiotherapy machine working in Nigeria, quote me. So the closest place was Ghana. He booked me and I was on the queue waiting to go to Ghana. Two weeks before I was to go to Ghana, MeCure had just come to Nigeria. He said, ‘Go to MeCure, let’s run some CTscan and see the effects of the nine chemos and treatments that you have taken.’
“Now, while taking treatment, I always tell people that everybody can access their own miracle through different means depending on your belief and most importantly, faith. Some people would have headache, take Panadol and it would not go, while some would take it and it would go immediately. So before I take any medication or treatment, I pray for God to empower it to work.
“At MeCure, I went in for my routine checks and as I was about leaving, they said, ‘come, we’re not done’. A second person ran the test, again they said no they were not satisfied. Then the HOD decided to run the test over again herself, saying my medical file that my doctor sent them and the result they were getting did not correspond. They did it again and then said, ‘Anyway, go back to your doctor’.
“I went back to my doctor and my doctor told me I was cancer-free (Roaring applause). In fact the way he described it, he said ‘Your cells are like a newly born baby’s’, no need for Radiotherapy, no more Tamoxifen which I was supposed to take daily for 10years as part of the treatment plans.
“Of course while going through all these, my mum, family, pastors were praying and fasting, and God answered.”
The stigma
“Let me tell you, I went through a lot. My experience during cancer was the worst ever. I went through the ‘worstest’ of stigma again. Then, nobody was talking about breast cancer. It was a taboo; it was like a plague and some people mocked me, labelled me names, accused me of sinning differently and hence the reason cancer came as my punishment. I was called a witch, Of course this was all because of lack of awareness, enlightenment and education. You really can’t blame them, this was 2010. I went through a whole lot and there was no name people did not call me. After the treatment, even when I got well, I just crawled myself inside a box, I could not go out because of the odd stares I got from people. I was in my own world for more than four years except for my most amazing priceless family and friend turned my caregiver(Sis Rose) that showered me daily with love, prayers and encouraging words. I was stigmatised, judged and tortured with all sorts.
“But one day, my freedom came. I was mentally healed and I heard that little still voice: I KEPT YOU FOR A REASON, YOU ARE ALIVE TO FULLFIL A PURPOSE. YOU DID NOT SIN DIFFERENTLY, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DIE, BUT I KEPT YOU TO SAVE OTHER WOMEN.
“I thought, me to go and save other women in this my condition? Who would listen to me? I got married, relocated to Lagos and I went about my new found business. And then three years ago after much struggling, disobedience, I was brought to my knees. I was literally stripped of everything distraction, until I followed God’s directive.
And that was how Engraced Life Foundation was birthed
By the grace of God, today, we’ve been supporting women; we’ve been going to communities, through boats to the riverine areas, to screen indigent women and we’ve seen a lot. We’ve seen women with decaying breasts, some of them using cellophane to wrap them, some taking urine, faeces etc . Some don’t even know what it is and you’d hear them say things like, ‘ Ah, them say them donate my breast for witchcraft coven, na village people jazz me etc
“And God has blessed me with the best team/family (volunteers). We have over 100 volunteers- doctors, nurses etc that have been supporting us. We don’t pay them, they just signed up to assist us serve humanity, especially the ones that cannot access and afford medical care. We have screened over 9000 women for FREE.
“All through the journey with breast cancer, I was so strong-willed, held on to God’s words and promises. I never gave up hope. I had daily affirmative words that kept my faith ALIVE. My thoughts became my daily prayer and I kept it positive.
“This October to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Engraced Life Foundation will be touring three states and 10 communities to screen girls and women for FREE as we launch #PINKNAIJA.
“Come join us to lend your VOICE with your support and let’s Kick out Breast Cancer.