Volunteers with the Makerere\n Palliative Care Unit, supported by Uganda Cancer Trust UK, have been \nproviding invaluable support to cancer patients. Here Byarufu and Vivian\n tell us their stories about how the volunteers have helped them.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
40 Year old Byarufu Rogers lives and works in the\u00a0northern part of Uganda as a teacher and is married\u00a0with three children. He had to travel over 300\u00a0kilometers to come to the national referral hospital\u00a0and only treatment center in Uganda to get treatment\u00a0for an eye melanoma. It took him about two months\u00a0on the hospital ward before he eventually started his\u00a0radiotherapy treatment which was a big distress for\u00a0him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was my first time to come to Mulago Hospital\u00a0and my biggest challenge was not knowing how\u00a0the system was working. I spent two month\u00a0without knowing exactly what was going on until\u00a0the Palliative care team came in and helped\u00a0explain to me everything. They also helped me to\u00a0start my radiotherapy treatment. I am happy now\u00a0that I am about to complete and go home because\u00a0I miss my family. It\u2019s because of the love that I\u00a0have for God that he brought me such a great\u00a0team of nurses and volunteers of palliative care\u00a0team who have given me strength and taken away\u00a0my worries and fears. They have not abandoned\u00a0me. Thank you for visiting me, getting me\u00a0my medications from the pharmacy I wish this care could even go beyond when I finish my\u00a0treatment and leave this hospital. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Vivian<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
One of the biggest challenges faced by many of our\u00a0patients is the lack of adequate family and financial\u00a0support while in hospital. This is partly because many\u00a0patients travel long distances to come into the hospital\u00a0which makes it difficult to come along with family\u00a0members. In such cases, patients have had to fend\u00a0for themselves, which is very challenging in the\u00a0hospital. This is the situation Vivian found herself in\u00a0when she came into hospital. The 27 year old lady\u00a0was admitted with cervical cancer to receive\u00a0radiotherapy treatment over a period of 8 weeks. The\u00a0volunteers have been acting as her main carers,\u00a0providing practical support like collecting her\u00a0medication, helping her access meals, and wheeling\u00a0her to the radiotherapy department for treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t think I would have managed to get\u00a0treatment if you people didn\u2019t help me. Thank you\u00a0very much for your service. I wish every patient\u00a0can also get what I have got. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Volunteers with the Makerere Palliative Care Unit, supported by Uganda Cancer Trust UK, have been providing invaluable support to cancer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugandacancer.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugandacancer.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugandacancer.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugandacancer.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugandacancer.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ugandacancer.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82,"href":"https:\/\/ugandacancer.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/82"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugandacancer.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugandacancer.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugandacancer.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}