Mariama Receives Life-Giving Treatment
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
"We have been able to treat more women more reliably using our chemotherapy fund - thank you for your help in raising finances in this..."
-Dr Anne-Sophie, SIM Australia Missionary
Mariama is twenty years old. She is married but she and her husband have no children. Around six months ago, she was diagnosed with choriocarcinoma, a rare cancer of the uterus.
At Niger's Galmi Hospital, run by SIM, chemotherapy is usually unaffordable for patients. The cost of the drug cocktails, repeated hospital stays, laboratory work, travel expenses and other costs add up over several months.
Most of Galmi's cancer patients come from farming communities, in which what little money there is has to be stretched thin over large families. The hope of such expensive treatment is far out of reach for so many.
A year ago, Dr. Anne-Sophie, our Head of Obstetrics Services, returned home to Australia for six months to focus on recruitment, personal fund-raising and a little bit of rest and relaxation. But Anne-Sophie had another objective for her time: to raise funds to help supplement the high cost of certain treatable cancers.
Amazingly, $60,000 was generously donated Aussies to the Galmi Benevolent fund to chemotherapy treatment patients like Mariama*. This is an enormous gift of love to Mariama and other cancer patients! Thank you so much to those who contributed.
The funds will help provide the hope of physical healing. But the healing of her body will not guarantee that Mariama will be free from the emotional scars of her disease.
At Galmi, the aim is to heal the whole person, not just the body. And while we cling to the hope that the chemotherapy will cure her cancer, Mariama's story is unlikely to have a happy ending. In Niger, a woman's value and worth is directly related to her ability to have children, and this cancer will probably rob her of that possibility.
But there is hope! Our God can heal heart-wounds too! The maternity ward chaplain meets monthly with Mariama and her doctor and nurses pray with her for miraculous healing, comfort and peace.
Please pray for Mariama that:
-Her treatment would be effective and her body will be healed.
-She might find her value in being a precious child of God more than her ability to have children.
-She would continue to be encouraged by the Maternity Ward chaplain and that she might be introduced to the Great Physician.
You can also partner with us in giving! The Galmi Benevolent fund assists patients like Mariama who are unable to pay their hospital fees due to poverty or other social factors. Click here to give a tax-deductible donation!
*Name changed to protect identity. Photo used with permission.
