Help me fund specialised treatment, cancer patient appeals

A cancer patient living in Umoja Estate, Nairobi, is appealing for help for her to get specialised treatment.

Juliet Biketi, 28, has been battling cancer since 2020. It started with breast cancer which spread and attacked her spine, paralysing her lower limbs.

Biketi, who is a mother of a five-year-old boy, needs Sh3 million to get immunotherapy treatment in India.

"I call out to all the Kenyans. I just want to inquire for help from them. There is no shame in asking for help. So the little they have, we request them to come through for me so that we can collect that cash and go for the specialised treatment," she says.

"I still need my family and my family needs me."

One morning in April 2020, Biketi woke up and realised she had a "big-sized" lump on her right breast.

She reached out to her gynaecologist, who did not find any health risk after an ultrasound. 

Six months later, the tumour was still growing. This resulted in another ultrasound and a biopsy. It was positive.

Biketi explained that she went on a search for an oncologist in Nairobi and began her medication at Kenyatta National Hospital. 

At KNH, she had eight sessions of radiotherapy, surgery mastectomy - surgical removal of the breast tissue and another 15 sessions of radiotherapy.

The treatment restored her health. However, six months after, she started having backaches which did not respond to painkillers or exercises.

Biketi went back to her oncologist, who ordered a scan, which did not show anything wrong with her spine.

She had to do a PET scan to determine the cause of her back pains. PET scans are used to reveal possible cancerous areas earlier than other forms of testing. 

"I did the PET scan, apparently it came out positive and it showed that there are cells that had attached to my thoracic lumbar. It had spread and I was at stage four," she says.

The doctors recommended permeative treatment, during which she was stable for the first-line treatment.

The cancer however spread during the second line of treatment, resulting in medication change.

The frequent hospital visits left Biket traumatised, which is why she decided to change hospital to Jaralam Medical Center.

She met Dr Vjay, who has been with her since last year.

In May 2023, Biket started feeling tingles in her legs.

"I just started feeling like when I walk, I lose balance. One day I woke up and when I tried standing, I fell," she says.

She went back to the hospital, where an MRI scan showed that the cancer cells had affected the thoracic spine which is responsible for the movement of the lower limbs, rendering her immobile.

Before cancer, Biket had started an accounting job in Westlands.

She was however laid off as she was not able to focus on work.

One of the job perks, the National Insurance Health Fund payment, was also stopped.

Biket turned to using her husband's insurance. The insurance gives Sh4 million to inpatients.

However, it has a limit of Sh850,000 for chronic illnesses, which is now depleted.

"It has not been an easy journey. Considering that our family is small, we had just started it and were looking forward to a happy family. But with sickness, everything stops," she says.

She, however, said their close family and friends have supported them, especially mentally by hiring counsellors and therapists. 

She urged people to go for screening, noting that no one is immune.

"If you have a cancer patient at home, the best you can give them is love. Support them in terms of financial and emotional support. Just support them. They just need that love," she says.

Biket has been selected for a runaway in July 2023 in an event aimed at raising funds for cancer survivors.

She is hopeful that this dream would come true even if she would be in a wheelchair.

To help Juliet Biketi contact her on (+254) 0723064152 or her husband Karoli Oile (+254) 0712868866.