The Democratic Party president Norbert Mao has today launched a campaign to raise Ushs 120 million to save cancer patient Agnes Nayigga, one of the party stalwarts.
Addressing a press conference at the DP headquarters at City House in Kampala, Mao, who was accompanied by Ms Nayiga and the DP Secretary General Mathias Nsubuga, said party members tasked him to lead the fundraising because of his previous experience with sickness, adding that he has also had to access foreign treatment twice with the help of party members.
Ms Nayiga, who was diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago in 2013, spends UgShs 1.5 million every three weeks on chemotherapy treatment following the loss of one of her breasts in December last year.
But Mr Mao said that despite undergoing chemotherapy, medical personnel attending to Ms Nayigga had referred her to an Indian hospital for Radiotherapy treatment, a process that would see her lose the second breast in order to stop the spread of cancer cells to other parts of her body.
In April this year the radiotherapy machine for the treatment of cancer at Mulago Hospital broke down, forcing patients to seek treatment abroad. And according to Mr Mao, the machine breakdown is a reflection of the indifference of the NRM government on issues pertaining to the welfare of the citizens.
“This government has wrong priorities; expensive cars for its officials and having useless allowances for the NRM legislators,” Mr Mao said adding the government did not even offer to cater for his treatment when he was sick apart from giving him a chopper that flew him from Gulu to Entebbe Airforce base.
On her part Ms Nayigga said the treatment had also affected her eye sight and asked the government to visit the patients at the cancer institute in Mulago.
The DP has printed several T-shirts to be sold at Shs30, 000 each, with the proceeds to be used for Nayigga’s treatment due mid August.
Nayigga’s cancer woes come in the wake of concerns raised by Mukono Municipality Member of Parliament Betty Nambooze Bakireke, a DP legislator who recently complained about the bureaucracy experienced by patients seeking treatment abroad.
The DP initiative in regard to Ms Nayigga is not the first time Ugandans are set to fundraise for individuals seeking foreign treatment; previously they have come together in solidarity, raising funds for distressed patients like the late NTV news anchor Rosemary Nankabirwa (RIP) and most recent for Carol Atuheirwe, a student at Uganda Christian University, Mukono.