Sunshine is 20 years old.
Sunshine had only recently been diagnosed with HIV and the HIV-associated cancer, Kaposi’s Sarcoma when she found out she was pregnant. She became very ill. She swelled up so much that she looked 40 years old. She couldn’t take three steps. She was waiting to die.
Salima District Hospital referred Sunshine to NdiMoyo. By the time she came to us she was so breathless and weak that NdiMoyo took her back to the hospital where she was admitted. Sunshine had tuberculosis, HIV and Kaposi’s Sarcoma. She lost her baby.
After two weeks in hospital taking antiretroviral therapy and vincristine, Sunshine developed anaemia which is a common side-effect of vincristine. She had to stop her chemotherapy.
Sunshine took maringo powder from NdiMoyo’s medicinal garden for her anaemia. Now that she is strong enough, she is able to take her ARVs and vincristine.
People come to Sunshine’s home and tell her mother that Sunshine will not see this growing season because she has cancer and will die.
Sunshine says that without NdiMoyo she wouldn’t be alive. Sunshine is very happy that she is alive.
If NdiMoyo did not care for me, I would have been dead so long that my parents would already have forgotten me.