'Everything sold': Kole family fails to raise money for child’s heart treatment

Daniel Epur shows her swollen body at the Nation Media Group office in Lira City on April 22, 2023. PHOTO/BILL OKETCH

Despite selling all their valuables including land, a family in Kole District has failed to raise money to save the life of their son who has been battling heart related complications for 16 years. 

The disadvantaged family, headed by a widow with disability, now cannot afford to take Daniel Epur for specialised treatment either within the country or abroad due to their inability to raise the required funds.

The condition which has baffled the family at Abilonino Village, Agege Parish in Bala Sub-county started around 2008, few months after the child’s birth.

Around that time, widow Florence Amongi had just lost her husband, Robert Epur who was reportedly knocked dead by a cow in 2007, leaving behind nine children.

Naume Adong, 23, said her brother has been unwell for the last 14 years after he was diagnosed with heart disease at Lira Regional Referral Hospital. Disturbingly, the pain stopped him from schooling some five years ago.

“In 2019, we sold one acre of land at Shs2.5million in an attempt to raise money for his operation but the money was too little to facilitate the operation. We ended up going to a private clinic and the money got finished,” she said at the Nation Media Group (NMG) bureau in Lira City on Saturday.

“Last week, we sold our only remaining goat to buy him some painkillers and the money is almost finished. What pains me most is the condition of my mother. Maybe if she was not disabled, we could not be suffering like this,” she added.

Narrating his experience with the condition, ailing Epur said: “I get so tired when I walk for long and when it starts, the pain is always too much.”

“He can cry the whole day when the condition worsens,” added Adong as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Meanwhile, the family said all the child’s medical documents were destroyed after one of their grass-thatched huts got burnt in 2021.

Adong, who is the sixth child in that family, is now appealing for aid just like St Peters Lela Church of Uganda catechist Allan Olol Aliro who has called on God-fearing people to support the family.

“Whatever support given can be of great help since the family’s breadwinner is also disabled,” said Aliro of the church based in Ayer Sub County.

 *Get in touch with the family on 0771064113 (Naume Adong)