‘How a pimple developed into Cancer and killed my father’: Governor Muthomi Njuki opens up
Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki has
opened up on how his late father contracted, battled, and eventually died of Cancer - a ending he intimates could have been avoided through early detection.
Speaking
on Citizen TV’s ‘The Big Conversation’ on Wednesday night, Governor Njuki recalled
how his father, a medical nurse, overlooked a developing pimple near his ear
which would later turn out to be his worst nightmare, and cause his demise.
In
what he said appeared to be a mere joke, the Governor noted that his deceased father would
shun going to Nairobi for a medical check-up for fear that he may be diagnosed
with the deadly disease.
“My
father was a nurse and even as he was treating other people, he developed a
pimple on the neck and I remember him saying, that he did not want to go to
hospital in Nairobi because he did not want to be found with Cancer,” recalled
the Council of Governors Health Committee Chairperson.
“Eventually
that pimple developed into something else and my father got Cancer that
affected his ears.”
In
the same light, Governor Njuki appealed to the public not to be ignorant, but
rather conduct routine health check-ups to avoid being caught off guard.
He
regretted that if his family had taken earlier steps to take their father to
the hospital, maybe they could have saved his life.
“We
spent a lot of money and since that time we did not have advancement in
chemotherapy, mostly we used radiotherapy, eventually, we lost him. I remember
saying to myself never again because had we taken our dad to hospital in good
time, probably early detection would have saved him,” he noted.
The
Governor, who cautioned the public against stigmatizing those affected, also
said his mother developed stomach problems later on, and later succumbed to
Pancreatic Cancer 28 years after his father.
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