Three years ago, I joined a fundraising campaign of my friends Agnes Naiga who had a late diagnosis of a breast cancer. I observed the pain she went through and how she cared for her 2 children in pain and her fear of losing her life and leave her children. It was the first time I came close to cancer. Agnes painfully left us this April after a failed treatment in the UK and spending a lot of money to address the ailment.
Caption: Agnes during her happy days last Christmas holiday
It has been a while without a voluntary service to create awareness and influence behavioral change. The last was in 2009 with THETA under the PMTCT and HIV/AIDS project among the children, youth and couples. So, on 12th day of August 2022,
I decided to join the Uganda Cancer Research Foundation
(UCRF) as a volunteer.
UCRF was founded in 2008 as a Foundation that will help people in Uganda and elsewhere get timely and accurate information about cancer. Despite of UCRF's timely vision and initial success, the Vision of UCRF has faltered through lack of visionary volunteers with necessary leadership and management capabilities. That is why i take on yet another adventurous yet critical voluntary role to rebuild and refocus UCRF so it can shine again.
Just like Agnes, there are many people suffering from cancer but have never come out to tell of their experience. With the desire to learn more about how I can contribute and help many of my friends, I needed a platform to start with. In July, a colleague Martin, also a resident of Kampala Uganda knowledgeable about UCRF introduced me to this community.
I intend to gather a lot of information through simple research and use the platform at UCRF to capture and tell many stories and create awareness about cancer so as to reduce its impact on those who are affiliated.
Moreover, UCRF promoters believed that anyone can
be touched regardless of the status in life, and, similarly, that everyone can
contribute by sharing their experiences, kindness, information to help a fellow
Ugandan deal with this problem.
Join me during the upcoming weeks and months as I share my contribution and many stories. Your role can be referral and participation to tell the story.
Let's go!
