Catherine Wambugu now goes door to door and from one hospital to another to check on and speak with cancer patients. She says her mission is to give them hope.
Wambugu, who is popularly known as Cate, started a group known as Hope and Courage International, and registered it so as to accomplish her mission.
She says she was diagnosed with blood cancer, which is known as Leukemia, in 2012.
“I lost all the hope I had in life. I felt like I would die the next day. In fact, I could not plan anything for the next day, simply because I thought I would die within a few minutes or hours,” she says.
However, Wambugu reveals that, as she attended clinics at Kenyatta National Hospital, she was referred to a hospital in India where her condition was treated.
When she came back to the country, she used to attend checkup clinics at KNH, where he met a nine-year-old boy who suffered from cancer.
“The boy approached me and asked me why I was covering my head. I told him that I had cancer that made my hair to be blown out, and he too told me that he was suffering from cancer and he did not have hair either,” she says.
Wambugu remembers that the boy encouraged her not to lose hope and to be strong and that one day, she shall cerebrate healing.
“Since we used to meet at KNH, one day he told me that, if he passes on, I should pick his wheelchair and give it to another patient of his age and encourage him or her. After a period of less than a month, that boy passed away” she says.
Wambugu says her organisation got its name from that episode, which, she says, touched her so much.
However, as a plan to expand the care she gives to the patients, she says that she is planning to build a haven and buy a car for children who are undergoing cancer treatment at different hospitals.
“There are children who sleep at the hospital benches waiting for clinics, especially at KNH since they come from very far. We shall be carrying them to the haven and to the hospital every day and whenever they are needed,” Wambugu says.
“The home will also assist in accommodating the patients where she will be counselling them to be strong, since many people find cancer as a killer disease. We shall also host parents and guardians who take care of children with cancer since at times they are stressed with the condition of their children.”
Wambugu says that a friend of her has donated a one acre piece of land in Nanyuki and now she needs almost Sh3.6 million to set up the haven.
She says she has planned a fundraising event at Moi Avenue Primary School in Nairobi on Saturday, March 18, in a bid to raise for the funds.
A member of Wambugu’s foundation, Grace Wanjiku, says they have been fasting and praying so as to see their dream come true.
