Passionate about fighting cancer

At 21, Sylvia Elizabeth, Kamya a medical student speaks passionately about fighting cancer. She is working with the Uganda Cancer Research Organistaion to raise awareness and collect data about cancer from various hospitals in the country. Edwin Nuwagaba writes about her journey on fighting the disease in Uganda.

When I went to interview Sylvia Elizabeth Kamya, I thought she was a woman in her 30s or 40s, seeing that my seniors really wanted her interviewed for the work she is doing on cancer. But on meeting her, I found a 21-year- old, speaking passionately about fighting cancer.

She has been in Kampala close to a month now. She is here to work hand in hand with the Uganda Cancer Research Organisation to collect data about cancer from various hospitals and communities. She is a third year medical student at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Kamya first heard about the organisation in October last year from her uncle; Dr Sam Mbulaiteye who is also a member. “I fell in love with the organisation and decided to volunteer with them,” she says.

Back in Scotland where she has lived with her family for 20 years, she had to fundraise for her trip to Uganda, as the Uganda Cancer Research Organisation did not have the money to support her. Her father was capable of helping, but she did not involve them. “I did not want to involve my father. I wanted it to be a personal initiative,” she says.

Is it because she has lost a dear one to cancer that she wants to do something about it? “Yes, my grandfather and my dad’s uncle passed away due to cancer. My dad’s uncle would not have passed away if they had detected it earlier. But I also love to help,” she says. Born to Mr Bernard Kamya a civil engineer and Harriet Kamya (RIP), Sylvia went to St. Margaret’s School for Girls Aberdeen and Cults Academy in Scotland.

Although she is Ugandan by birth, this is the third time she has been in the country. The was previously here in 2007 when she volunteered at Uganda Cancer Institute and Uganda Cancer Child Foundation, this time working closely with children suffering from cancer.

“I was helping to write sponsorship profiles for children, feeding and playing with them,” she says in a foreign English accent. When she finished, she went back to Scotland and did more fundraising, for both the children and the Uganda Cancer Research Foundation.

But fundraising came along with challenges, as she had to write so many profiles to send to companies there. She however did not give up and went out to solicit money all by herself. “I solicited for people in the UK to show interest in cancer, some of these are in Rotary Club, my university, the business community and one of the largest drilling companies in the UK; KCA Deutag drilling company,” she says.

About two weeks ago, she returned from Gulu where at Lacor Hospital, she was doing a survey about cancer. With her team from UCRF they also visited communities to find out more about the disease.

She says the biggest challenge she has met along the way is that there were many piles of data that she had to go through. “At times you would get files which showed symptoms related to cancer and as you read on, some clinical notes couldn’t prove whether it was cancer or not. So you had to look at the tests much closer,” she says.

She goes on to say; “It is quite a lot of work, for instance at Lacor Hospital, we collected data for people diagnosed with cancer and we got 3,000-4,000 cases between 2000 and 2010. Some of these are people who passed away and some are still alive.”

By the time she goes back home, she will have covered Soroti, Mbale and Jinja Hospitals. Doing this, she believes, will help to give a vivid picture of the status of cancer in Uganda. The data she has collected will be submitted to a central point online where it will be analysed.

“Once we have got the data and analysed it to find which is the most common cancer, then we shall use that information to increase awareness about that cancer,” she says.

Sylvia is alarmed by her findings that people don’t actually know that even young children can catch cancer. “When the child is brought to the hospital very late, the tumour would have spread so much across the body, which means that they will need more medicine,” she says. It is worth noting that cancer can be fatal when reported in its late stage, and this is what happens most of the times.