HEALTH GOSSIP: The Tears Of Motherhood - A lady of 25yrs with Breast Cancer!

  As Cancer of the breast is to Women and Prostate cancer is to Men. Cancer(malignant tumor) is one disease you wouldn't want to wish your worst enemy.. Yaaa!!! Here is the story of a once healthy and vibrant young Nigerian Lady who unfortunately was caught by the crab-like and stubborn hands of breast cancer.
 
  When 25-year-old Linda Godwin, a primary school teacher residing at 11, Odofin Street, Olodi Apapa in Lagos, discovered a tiny lump (seed) in her right breast sometime in January 2012, she had no premonition she was on the threshold of a long and tortuous journey into the agonizing world of cancer.

  Today Linda, who hails from Isi Umuozu, Nwangele LGA of Imo State, and is mother of a two and a half-year-old boy, is fighting the battle of her life against late-stage breast
cancer.

  In the hope to win the battle and survive, she is currently undergoing expensive chemotherapy at the Lagos
University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi Araba, Lagos.

  Linda who described her ordeal as the worst imaginable, is passionately appealing to all well meaning Nigerians for financial assistance to complete the therapy and to go
abroad for further treatment.
Writhing and groaning in pains, she told a moving tale of anguish, regret and lamentation of the genesis of her
ordeal.

  "I discovered the lump in my breast by accident and called
my husband's attention to it. Together, we went to a diagnostic centre in Pako, Ajegunle area of Lagos State where a scan was prescribed. The result indicated that
the lump was benign. We were told it was actually a cyst and not a malignant tumour as we initially feared."

  Linda said was prescribed Augmentin tablets and some other antibiotics and the couple was made to believe that the drugs would melt off the lump. She didn't know it
then, but the decision to follow the prescribed treatment turned out to be her undoing. "To my surprise, the seed started growing even faster.
The growth was so fast it covered almost half of the breast in no time. I became alarmed and on advice of
concerned persons, decided to try out herbal medicine which I took orally and applied superficially on the breast.

  But there was no improvement."
Linda has since been running from pillar to post in her quest for a cure. Her search for relief took her to various native doctors, traditional healers and Churches within and outside Lagos. But it was to no avail.

A Medical report from LUTH indicated Linda is being managed for invasive ductal carcinoma, SBR Grade III,
synchronous bilateral breast cancer.
"This is a late stage cancer," noted Consultant Oncologist and Head of the Department of Radiation/Oncology,
LUTH, Professor A.T. Ajekigbe, while confirming Linda was registered at the surgical outpatient department of the health institution on April 26, 2013. Ajekigbe recalled the patient had earlier reported at the Accident & Emergency on 20th March, 2013 and was diagnosed with right breast ulcer.

  When she was first seen it was at a late stage. She had the disease at least 15 months earlier before presenting. Now What we do is to manage it to reduce the complications.

  At this point in time, the tumour had spread to Linda's right arm and hand. She has been placed on an eight-course chemotherapy at three-week intervals. She has currently completed four courses and has four to go. Each treatment course costs approximately N300,000, but when drugs and other essentials are factored in, in addition to requirement of care and support, rehabilitation, radiotherapy, plastic surgery, etc., the cost runs even higher. To effectively manage the condition, Linda currently requires approximately N500,000 every three weeks over the next one year.

  In a passionate appeal, Linda and her husband Godwin, are calling for assistance. We are on our knees imploring kind-hearted Nigerians at home and abroad to have compassion and come to my aid. We need urgent financial assistance to continue managing this disorder and eventually go abroad for better treatment.

  Godwin weepingly says; "I cannot even afford my son's school fees, and even feeding for my family has been a very big problem. My landlord has however been merciful to me as a result of my wife's condition as I owe him rent for over a year." All I can now offer to my wife is only moral support and encouragement. I appeal to Nigerians who can help to please assist me and my family as we hope to fly Linda abroad for further treatment.We shall be ever grateful and God will bless you as you respond."

  In life certain things happen to certain people who in no means deserve it. Linda is one of them. Cancer is worse than HIV.. Ooh YES! Think about her son,at two and the half years old, He needs his mum now than ever! The truth is that We(Nigerians) can help this young lady with some years to give her Son the motherly care he deserves. Ooooh YES WE CAN...

  God bless you as you help and sow into  Linda and her family's lives.. Amen.
   
  If you wish to assist Linda, kindly send donations to Linda
Godwin, Diamond Bank 0035014567, or call 08171334776 and 08038247106 for more details.