This archive report was first published on 5 August 2020.
On a cold floor in her one-room house in Kariobangi North, Nairobi, Millicent Kagonga spreads a dismantled carton box for a cancer patient she has rescued from a public hospital corridor. The carton is thin, but it is comfortable enough for her guest.
"The patient was discharged from the hospital, still very weak and bleeding, but with no family in the city or money to travel to Busia, where she comes from, she spent the night at the hospital corridor, so I brought her home," she says.
For Millicent, a cervical cancer survivor, her home has become a sanctuary for poor patients battling cancer. She often welcomes the sick and dejected to her humble abode, where she plays the role of nurse, advisor, financier, and palliative care nurse.
With no access to levers of influence, Millicent relies on the kindness of strangers to help her patients. "Everyone has something extra to give. I may have no money but I am their voice," she says.
When we met her, she had just taken four 10-year-old girls for the free cervical cancer vaccine at Kariobangi North Health Centre. Before that, a 54-year-old woman with breast cancer had come to her house to seek a second opinion on whether to wait for three months before starting radiotherapy treatment.
Despite her own struggles with poverty and disease, Millicent approaches the world's problems with the weight of an elder. She grew up in the slums, dropped out of school after getting pregnant at 14, got three children but one died, separated with her husband at 20, and was diagnosed with cervical cancer at 27.
Her most memorable donation came by chance last December, when a group of well-wishers handed over a large collection of food donation, clothes, and painkillers. "The men had brought nice clothes which they gave them to the male patients whose worn-out clothes could barely cover them. They then asked if we needed more painkillers and brought hundreds of packets of drugs for patients who had suffered for years," she says.
Her phone rarely stops ringing, with 73 calls a day, as she tries to help as many patients as possible. Despite the challenges, Millicent remains committed to her work, driven by her own experiences as a cancer patient and her desire to help others.
