My battle with cancer

ment. He insisted that we seek a second opinion. We went to Dr. Seyi Roberts, consultant physician and neurologist at the Royal Cross Medical Centre Limited, Obalende, Lagos. I gave him the report from Radmed Diagnostics. We discussed it generally but the summary was that I had a serious condition and needed to make the trip to London urgently. I wanted to travel to London without informing my parents because I did not want to scare them about my health condition. My wife simply told me I was day-dreaming. She said she was not in a position to carry the huge responsibility I was putting on her shoulders and she would never be able to explain to my parents and siblings if anything untoward happened to me in the course of my treatment in London. She added that the cries of my mother to God for his mercies to be upon me in my period of ill health could be decisive. I changed my mind. Since I knew the timing of my trip, I travelled to Benin City to tell my parents I would be away in the United Kingdom for a short visit. My father was concerned that it was coinciding with the Christmas period. I told him I needed to see the doctor before he went off on Christmas vacation. My father did not ask me any more questions. My mother prayed for me and said God would bring me back in good health.

I once again surveyed my extended family. All I saw was the potential for a monumental crisis should anything happen to me. Many of my siblings were still in school. My parents looked up to me for funding as my mother was getting tired in her trades. I did not know how I would end. I visited my elder sister, Mrs. Rosaline Okosun, to tell her of my plans. She immediately got ready to come to Lagos after the Christmas festivities to stay with my children. The plan was that my wife would join me in London after the Christmas celebrations. On my return to Lagos, I called my friend and a customer of the Bank, Mr. Elvis Emechetta, who had offices in London and Lagos. I told him I would be in London for medical treatment. He said he would be in London until the eve of the New Year of 1998 and both of us could stay in his house in Lewishan until he left for Lagos. I was glad to have a companion in my moment of despair. Then, Dick Osah came to see me. He gave me several inspirational Bible passages from the old and new testaments, which stayed with me through my treatment programme. Before

I left for London, Mrs. Banigo sent me this note, which is transcribed verbatim here. Dated 18.12.97, the note said: ‘‘My dear Omokhodion, I have found it necessary to write to you today. I really do not know what to say but I believe God will direct me. Psalm 20, I need you to write it down replacing ‘you’ with ‘ME’. When trials and testing come, it may seem as if God has forgotten us. Our faith becomes shaken but remember there is one, faithful God on whom we all depend. He will never let us down. Hebrew 13.5. I am not a fanatic. I am only showing the joy I have received from my King. Knowing him is the best thing that could have happened to me. I want you to go knowing that God is the artist of your life, he intentionally allows greys to be brushed on our canvas for a reason. He uses these shadows to make our lives richer. You will sail through by God’s help and grace. Draw very close to your God and you will be surprised how his promises concerning you will remain ‘yes’. I wish you all the best. I know you will sail through. When sometimes you feel down remember your lovely children one by one and your lovely wife (Funmi). There is so much to look forward to…those lovely daughters - we will drink and collect dowry and wear Aso Ebi. So cheer up. Take care. God is with you. Best regards today and always. As soon as you arrive, please send your number to Oga. We will continue to communicate. Merry Xmas. Madam.”

Oga is Chairman Banigo. That was the inspirational letter my sister, Mrs. Banigo sent to me. It was motivational. I was determined to live and I begged God to spare my life.

I needed to do one more thing. I had no will and did not know whether I would make it back to Nigeria alive. I quickly prepared a will and sent it to my friend, Osaro Isokpan, Esq., to hold in the event of an ugly development. On the eve of my departure, my bosom friend, Chief Innocent Eberechukwu Oparadike, former Managing Director of Daily Times, came to the house with his wife, Esta. He prayed for me and gave me a crucifix – a cross of Christ crucified, to hold on to throughout my stay in London. Mr. Isokpan came with his wife to bid me farewell and gave me some pounds sterling to add to what I had. My wife loaded me up with all the Bible verses I had never seen and insisted on my regular prayers and supplications to God. I felt truly loved and prepared for the medical trip. Then, I left for London.

The flight landed at Heathrow Airport by 6.00 am and I went straight to a hotel. By 2.00 pm on December 19, 1997, I was at the clinic of Dr. Fogelman. He was expecting me and I gave him the letter from Jacen Clinic/radmed Diagnostic Centre Ltd. He asked for my medical history and noted that all the tests I did in Lagos were preliminaries. He said the tests will be repeated. I was happy to repeat the tests. He did the initial blood test in the clinic and concluded the checks with my physical examination. At this time, the neck from where the biopsy was taken had become a healing sore, which was being treated daily. He then placed a call to Dr. Christine Costello, consultant haematologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. Dr. Costello gave me an appointment for Monday, December 22, 1997. During the weekend, I found my way to the residence of Elvis Emechetta on Vicars Hill, Ladywell - Lewishan, London. I spent the time watching football matches in the English Premier League. For the time we were together, Mr. Emechetta was kind enough to drop me off in his car for my hospital appointment for the day.

The day of my appointment with Dr. Costello came. Because of the history of my condition that had been presented, Dr. Costello was very anxious to know my chances of survival. She wanted to assess how far the cancer cells had spread. She needed to do a bone marrow biopsy. The nurse prepared me for the procedure. He gave me local anaesthesia to deaden the pain as much as possible. Dr. Costello drove a long surgical needle into my buttocks, piercing deep to extract marrow from my bone. The pain was simply unimaginable. It was as if a knife was being used to separate one bone from the other. The bone marrow extrusion was needed to know if the treatment would be worth the while. From there, I was taken to the consulting room of the consultant surgeon, Mr. David Nott, for a repeat biopsy of my neck gland, which he did with so much blood splashing on the surgical table. It was the second time this biopsy was being taken and my neck was now really sore. On Tuesday, December 23, 1997 I went to the x-ray department at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for a CT scan. It was my first time to enter the scary tube. For the CT scan, I was advised not to eat anything from midnight of Monday. I could only drink water. When I returned to Dr. Costello on December 24, she described my condition thus: “Nodular sclerosing Hodgkin’s disease involving nodes in (L) neck and spleen. At Stage 3B.’’ When I asked her what Stage 3B meant, she explained that there are eight stages in the evolution of cancer cells, and they are in A and B. At Stage 3B, my condition was on the sixth stage and if it got to Stage 4A, it would have either gone into my bone marrow or would definitely do so in stage 4B. And once it got into the bone marrow, healing becomes particularly difficult, if not impossible at that point. The time I wasted before seeing a doctor in Lagos almost placed a death sentence on me. I was very happy that it was at stage 3B and thanked God for it.

Dr. Costello then set up an appointment for me to see Dr. Robert Phillips, consultant radiotherapist and physician in medical oncology at the Lister Hospital, Chelsea Bridge Road, SW1, by 12.30 pm on Saturday, December 27, 1997. As a medical oncologist, Dr. Phillips became the centre of my world for the months I spent on the treatment of my ailment. My coming to see Dr. Phillips was for him to prescribe for me the course of treatment and determine the cocktail of drugs I would need for my chemotherapy. Mr. Emechetta took me to see Dr. Phillips and stayed with me during the oral examination with the doctor. Mr. Emechetta later told me he was frightened when Dr. Phillips could not answer my question whether I would survive. The treatment at this point was still tentative because the result of the biopsy taken by Mr. Nott would give a final verdict on the type of Lymphoma I had – Hodgkin’s or the more virulent type called non-hodgkin’s lymphoma. The drugs in use for the two variants were said to be completely different. I was programmed to see Dr. Costello on December 29 and Mr. Nott on December 30, for further guidance on my treatment programme. Meanwhile, Dr. Phillip did an extensive examination of my body and, at the end of the exercise, gave a detailed description of my condition. He spoke little, very professional and confident. I asked him if I had a survival chance and all he told me was that he could only treat but it’s God who heals. To many of my other questions, all he did was to simply grunt. Too many discussions constitute a waste of time to him. His motto was like ‘‘let me do my job.’’ At this point, I did not know that my wife, Funmilayo, had joined many a number of social groups who were either cancer survivors or spouses of cancer patients. She understood every stage I described to her that I was going through. The knowledge she derived from these interactions was very useful for me to understand the journey I was undertaking. It is true that the educated wife is a huge asset. My wife was worried but she knew where to turn. She was full of prayers and organised prayer chains with her friends for the good Lord to have mercy on me. She also organised prayer chain for the children and, at a particular time during the day, they all had a virtual meeting of the mind and prayed. 7KH %RRN µ3RZHUHG E\ 3RYHUW\¶ FDQ EH SXUFKDVHG DW 5RYLQJ +HLJKWV %RRNVWRUH DW 1R 2JXQODQD 'ULYH 6XUXOHUH /DJRV DQG IURP /DWHUQD 9HQWXUHV /LPLWHG 2NR $ZR6WUHHW 9LFWRULD ,VODQG /DJRV

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