Photo: ±«Óãtv-based palliative care gives people living with cancer the emotional support, advice and medication they need.
“I am happy because if it weren’t for Jane, my community health volunteer, my cancer probably wouldn’t have been detected. She takes care of me. She helps me manage my pain with medicines and helped me through my treatment. I am grateful to her for my life.
Hospice Care Kenya would like to say a huge thank you to all the Radio 4 listeners who so generously supported our appeal. You helped us raise an amazing £28,991 to train and support community health volunteers who will provide compassionate palliative care across Kenya.
Our presenter Mike Wooldridge shared the story of Grace, a community health volunteer from Kenya, and how her training in palliative care was changing the life of Joseph who had prostate cancer.
Now, with your support, more community health volunteers will be trained to provide essential palliative care, to emotionally support people living with cancer and their families, and to provide advice and help with pain medication. From the Maasai villages of Kajiado County in the south, to Kilifi County on the coast, and Samburu in the central north, this appeal has enabled us to start work in ten counties across Kenya to bring palliative care to rural villages.
Training for 200 new volunteers is already underway and we are supporting over 250 trained volunteers to raise awareness of cancer and coronavirus. We’re also providing them with home-based palliative care kits so they can give the best care to their patients.
The coronavirus pandemic has made life even more difficult for people in Kenya who live with cancer and depend on palliative care services. Lockdown travel restrictions made it difficult to reach a hospice and many say they are simply too scared to travel. The work of community health volunteers, who can easily reach out to patients in their communities, provide them with palliative care and teach them how to protect their fragile health from coronavirus, has become even more vital.
Thank you for changing the lives of people living with cancer in Kenya.
You can find out more about our charity.