A 22-year-old lady has been narrating the harrowing ordeal her mother had to go through in her quest to seek for remedies for her breast cancer disease.
Precious, who was then 9 years old said although she knew her mother was battling a breast infection, she didn’t know at that time that it was breast cancer.
She would see her mother endure so much pain and had to undergo spiritual bath every midnight.
Her mother, Joyce Aidoo, who was then 28 years, had sought treatment for her breast infection at a church at Agona Swedru in the Central Region. Joyce Aidoo also did not know she was suffering from breast cancer.
Precious, narrating her mother’s ordeal on Akoma FM’s lifestyle and social issues show, AkomaMuNsɛm, noted that at age nine, she saw her mother being told by the priest to pick stones and chew as a spiritual direction that would heal her mother.
“My mother was asked by the pastor to walk round the church building seven times and pick stones numbering seven to chew and that will help the swollen breast heal,” she recounted Thursday, October 24, 2024.
Joyce Aidoo, the cancer victim, confirmed the narration by her daughter and said at a point she could not endure the pain again after spending six months at the church and left.
“The Pastor made me chew those stones all in the name of getting healed but the breast kept enlarging and the pains were unbearable. I became a living dead so I ran away,” Joyce recounted.
To worsen their plight, she disclosed that her husband abandoned her and her daughter due to her condition.
This affected the education of Precious who had to stay with her mother at the church and depend on the grandmother who was a petty trader to survive.
Joyce said she was approached by a male breast cancer survivor who saw her condition after fleeing the pastor’s church, and advised her to seek medical attention. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and had her affected breast removed.
She has survived breast cancer for 13 years and has since become an advocate and a member of the Breast Cancer Survivors Association, encouraging women and young girls to get their breasts screened for early detection and prompt medical attention.
Meanwhile, President of Breast Care International, Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai,who was also on the AkomaMuNsɛm show on Akoma 87.9FM is advocating the need for a deliberate social support system in the fight against breast cancer.
According to Dr. Wiafe Addai, in most advanced countries there are social support systems for breast cancer patients that make them more acceptable in society.
She lament the situation in Ghana is however different as anyone diagnosed with breast cancer is left on her own to battle the disease with huge financial burden and stigmatisation.
By Beatrice Spio-Garbrah|Akoma FM
