As the work of the ship starts to gain momentum, as patients begin to arrive with hope of a new future my work begins with looking at those who are so often overlooked. Seeing people arrive on the dock with smiles on their faces, only for it to disappear once I speak the few words, “There is no cure, we can’t help with treatment”. If there was some way of referring patients on to a treatment programme, chemotherapy or radiotherapy I would jump at the chance. Some of those I see could still have a chance of responding to treatment. But there is nothing. No cancer care and very little chemotherapy. What little chemotherapy there is is far beyond the means of most people. How does it feel to live in a place where all the options are removed from you? To have no understanding of your illness, so many questions and no solutions?
I saw spoke with two such people this week. One was a 16 year old boy. We saw him as we were driving into the port as he was lying on the ground, emaciated and with a huge swelling to his thigh, most probably a tumour. Since the abrupt stop to the screening day, many people have been coming to the port gate to try to be seen. His father had bought him to the port, hanging on to the last hope that we could help. When I told him that we couldn't help and that his son was dying, tears began to stream down his face. We sat there on the dusty ground and prayed for peace and comfort in his last few days, our hands resting on his exhausted body. We gave him some medication that will hopefully bring relief from the pain that is stopping him sleeping. Sadly he lives too far away for me to visit. I had to let him go knowing that I had done all I could in that short space of time. Sometimes it's all you can do to tell the truth, be honest and let them know what to expect. It never seems like enough, but it has to be.
The other was a 3 year old little girl. She had returned to the ship with her mother after having a biopsy of the swelling behind her eye. We hoped that it was burkitts lymphoma which could be treated on our chemotherapy programme. But sadly it was not. It was retinoblastoma, a common childhood cancer which can be detected early and treated easily in the West. But not here. It turns out that last year she had her eye removed surgically, her mother selling most of her possessions to fund it. But without chemotherapy and follow up, the cancer had returned. She sat with her mother on the dock, her head covered with a blanket as the wind and sun caused pain to her tender eye. Her mother's smile of greeting faded as I explained the situation. As we sat and talked with her she explained that her husband had disappeared, presumably left her, with 4 children ranging from 8 down to 8 month old twins. She had no money, no family in Freetown and barely any way of keeping her family alive.
When a situation seems desperate, there is often so much more desperation the further I dig. I should stop being caught off guard by this but when ever I am faced with another shattered life I begin to wonder how it is possible for one person to bear so much heartache and continue to cling to life. The people in this country have encountered so much in recent years only to be battered time and time again by the inequalities of our fallen world. I am able to go and visit this little girl, to help with her pain but I also have to watch helplessly as the cancer continues to grow. I am able to help the mother to set up a small stall to provide a meagre income for her family. But what I can't do is bring her husband back and cure her little girl which is what I know is what she wants most in the world.
As I continue to come across more and more of these broken lives I am letting my trust and certainty in God guide me. I am humbled by how insignificant and selfish my problems are in comparison to these people. I have been using 2 Corinthians 5:7 - 'For we walk by faith, not by sight' - a lot this week. It reminds me that all that I see here and experience is not for me to understand. That His purposes are higher than mine. I am not trying to justify the brokenness. I know that Gods heart is broken also for these people and that his tears flow with mine.
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