She manages to smile at you even though her face has been disfigured by a horrible swelling in her right eye.
Although she is experiencing unbearable agony on her hospital bed, she manages to put up a brave face because she is determined to survive. You’re welcome to the world of Gift Agbo, a 10-year-old battling with Leukemia.
Gift was born into the family of Gabriel and Patience Agbo on March 22, 2004. Her parents who are indigenes of Idoma, in Benue State, merely struggle to make ends meet, and are therefore very saddened at the fate which has now befallen their pretty daughter.
At the tender age of 10, it is expected that Gift should be in school. But in place of school, she is been confined to a hospital bed at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) as a result of a horrible swelling in her right eye, a symptom of a greater problem -leukemia. Leukemia is cancer of the blood cells.
It starts in the bone marrow, the soft tissue inside most bones. Bone marrow is where blood cells are made. Early symptoms of leukemia may include fatigue, fever, and pain or a feeling of fullness below the ribs.
According to a medical report from the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), signed by Dr Akinwumi, a Consultant Paediatrician of the Haemotology/Oncology Unit, Gift was presented to the unit on August 29, 2014, with a swelling in her right eye, paleness of the body and fever.
Further investigation revealed she has acute Myeloid Leukamia. The medical report also says she has undergone blood transfusion several times and is now awaiting chemotherapy.
A picture of Gift before the swelling in her right eye started, shows a very pretty, chubby, lively and happy little girl. However it is a completely different picture you get when you look at her now.
The horrible swelling in her right eyes could very well repel you, because it has disfigured her face very badly. Initially, when her eye started swelling, it was learnt that it swelled to a point that she could no longer open her eye.
The swelling later became so serious that pus started oozing out of the little girl’s eye. In order to save the little girl’s life and protect her eye from suffering permanent damage, doctors battled to reopen her right eye and make her illness more manageable.
However, further treatment of the little girl appears to have been stalled at the LASUTH because of lack of money. Gift’s father, Pastor Gabriel Agbo, says he has tried his best to raise funds to continue his daughter’s treatment, but he can no longer cope with the financial strain.
He says: “I have spent over N300, 000 on my daughter’s treatment but it is not enough. I still need about N4million for my daughter to recover between now and the next two years.”
However, Gabriel adds that he has been informed by doctors that his daughter’s treatment for leukemia may last well into adulthood. Gabriel, who resides with his family at No.10, Michael Ajanaku street, Dominion Estate, Ayobo, is appealing to well-meaning Nigerians to come to his aid financially so that his daughter can be well again.
He says: “I can’t afford to pay the money required for my daughter to be well again, because of my meagre salary.
Therefore, I am appealing to all Nigerians to please help me with money to pay for my daughter’s hospital bills and treatment so that we can find a permanent cure to my daughter’s illness.”
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