Personal Stories
For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today
-African Proverb
One of the things Africa is known for is our beautiful and diverse oral story-telling heritage. For centuries stories have been used to remind us of where we have come from, to pass on life-long lessons, and to inspire us to create a better life for future generations. Cancer is silently killing thousands of people in Africa every year, and there is a lot we can do to prevent this. By sharing your story, whether you or someone you love has had cancer, you could make a profound difference in the lives of many others across the continent and beyond. It could be a story about your victories, struggles, or even about the different treatments or information that you have had access to. Your words may indeed be one of the most powerful tools we can use in the fight against cancer in Africa.
Real Life Stories
I am a former cancer patient and am not afraid to talk about it. I am 35 years old. My life changed when I was 27 and it didn’t need to. I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer, rare for woman my age. Critical factors that determined the drastic measures taken for my treatment were: lack of awareness among the populace of the existence of this disease (plus the stigma attached to ‘woman problems’); poor medical surveillance and follow up procedures; and most important, the lack of an organisation where I could have gone for advice… I am thankful for the vision of ACF and want to be a part of it.
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Device Stories
A Thermocoagulator is a reusable handheld device that has been recently invented to treat cervical precancerous lesions through a process known as thermocoagulation. This process involves destruction of precancerous lesions in the transformation zone with temperatures between 100- 1200C. It has been shown to be as effective as cryotherapy and LEEP (Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure) in the treatment of CIN (Dolman et al, 2017).It is increasingly being adopted as an alternative treatment to cryotherapy within screen and treat cervical screening programs.
The thermocoagulator comes with a handheld handle, exchangeable probes that have different heating tips made of highly conductive metal (16mmflat, 19mm flat and 19mm pointed tip), two rechargeable batteries and battery charger.
It is amazing how a gadget so small can touch so many lives in a day. The fact that it takes just one minute to complete a full treatment and has a +1mm better penetration that Cryotherapy, that coupled with the fact that you can take it with you anywhere due to its convenient size is mind blowing for me. I’m so glad to have been among the first medics in Kenya to have used it.
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