My Giving Story
In March 2023, I survived bone cancer through the amputation of my left hand. This was after battling cancer for 11 years; from 2012 to 2023. During this journey, I still kept up with achieving academic excellence despite missing school for multiple months. 2023 was my final secondary school year of which I missed 6 months of classes due to amputation. I managed to graduate scoring 8 A’s out of my 9 subjects in the National Examinations of Tanzania.
I believed and still believe that I survived cancer but did not end my journey of battling against cancer. In February 2024 at the age of 17 years, I took action to start a youth-led initiative that I named “The Hopeful Hearted Society.” My initiative had two major aims:
- Raising awareness about cancer among Adolescents and Young Adults (AYAs).
- Providing material and emotional support to current cancer patients.
I visited 3 secondary schools for awareness campaign sessions reaching 2100+ students (Kibaha, Mivumoni, and Alpha Secondary Schools). I spent my time also at Tumaini la Maisha children’s Cancer Care Centre where I provided emotional support to children and parents who are cancer victims. Through sharing my survivorship story, I raised hope and encouraged a good number of them to keep on fighting for their healthy well-being. In June 2024, I organised a charity event to support the children’s cancer centre. I managed to raise 813,000/= TSHs from youths’ donations. We were able to buy rice, honey, diapers, cooking oil, soaps, books, and other basic household items to support the children at the centre.
Currently, I am admitted to UWC East Africa as a residential student pursuing my high school education under a full merit- and need-based scholarship. I keep up with my cancer advocacy campaigns in school and outside school boundaries through my social media platforms. As part of school programs, I led my fellow students to participate for a week in a project I named “JOURNEY OF HOPE.” We travelled 450+ km from Moshi to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to volunteer at the same children’s cancer care centre in Muhimbili National Hospital. We helped with daily domestic activities at the centre like preparing nutritional smoothies for children, teaching children some classwork, and cleaning. I also conducted a parent’s emotional support session by sharing my story and motivating them to keep on taking care of their kids without giving up.
As Matthew Reilly says, “We didn’t come this far just to come this far.” If selected among the prize winners, it will boost my motivation and enable me to engage more in productive activities to help my community.
