John

John

My name is John Chahilu. I am 67-years-old and a retired teacher. I’m married with six children. I come from Kiminini in Trans Nzoia County. My home is approximately 100 km (62 miles) to Eldoret. In 2013, while I was still in service, I was inspecting construction work when, unfortunately, I fell due to some loose construction chips on the floor. This caused a lot of pain in my back. I was rushed to the school dispensary, observed, and was given some painkillers and the pain went away.

One month later the back pains recurred and I went back to the hospital and was treated. After a few weeks, again the pain recurred. I felt something was very wrong with my back, so I decided to go to a private health facility in Nairobi where various tests were carried out and was told that I had multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. The mention of cancer blackened my mind. I was not myself. I kept the results to myself and I did not want to accept the results. In the same year around November, the pain became severe, so I went to another private health facility in Eldoret where again more tests were done one after the other. Two weeks later when I went for the results I wasn’t walking properly and the pain was very severe. Again I was sent for another test, this time around a bone biopsy. I went back home for another two weeks to wait for the results. Once the results were out, the doctor told me I had a blood cancer called multiple myeloma.

In 2014 January, I started my treatment in Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) and since then,  Chandaria Cancer and Chronic Diseases Center has been my home. I have never missed my clinic visits, have always done all the required tests, and have seen great improvements. Since then, I have had three remissions for 6 months, three months, and now for 15 months (since October 2019).

My appetite is good, I eat all types of meals except sugar. I take a lot of fruits and a lot of fluids. In short, I’m doing well. The body weakness is still there, but I’m doing good. I use pain medication for back pain and muscles. I want to thank AMPATH Multiple Myeloma (MM) Program and MTRH Hemato-oncology directorate for being so kind and treating me very well. The program team keeps on calling me and checking up on me. This keeps me going. 

There is one person I owe a lot--my wife for taking care of me and supporting me. She has been here for the past seven years. I thank my family members for their support.

I thank the AMPATH MM group for organizing meetings for us to encourage us. My doctor, answers the calls and responds to my messages all the time. I thank them for their support. The doctor knows me by my name and that encourages me a lot. The AMPATH MM team has been supportive. The best thing about the AMPATH MM Program is that they provide us with medication when the NHIF is depleted. When we are stuck, they step in and provide support in terms of transport, health insurance and laboratory tests.