Pool star Gumikiriza maintains faith in fight against cancer

Strong Sheep. Gumikiriza remains strong that all will be well in his fight against what the doctors diagnosed as skin cancer. PHOTO/GEORGE KATONGOLE

What you need to know:

ABOUT GUMIKIRIZA

Nickname: Black Sheep
Team: Giants Pool Club, Ntinda
Honours: National champion in 2012 and 2015
Role: National pool team captain
Style: Quick and attacking
Diagnosed with cancer: March 2020

It has been a 10-month battle for 34-year-old Alfred Gumikiriza and his family. Last November, Gumikiriza, commonly known as Black Sheep , returned with the rest of the team from the 2019 Africa Pool Championships held in the town of Secunda, Mpumalanga Province in South Africa and started to feel a pain in his right foot.

“I just felt something was not right with me. The leg felt a bit bigger and harder,” Gumikiriza said of his hunch.
What started as bumps became small sores on the foot before attacking the left foot. He tried several herbal remedies. He initially thought it was “ettalo”, which is a painful swelling of a part of the leg believed to be a result of walking over fetishes. Though his friends assumed he had caught HIV/Aids and that he was just living in denial.

When the pain got worse around March, he barely walked and was limited to clutches. That is when he decided to visit a consultant at Mukono Health Centre IV. After examining his X-Rays, the doctor knew something was wrong. He was then referred to the Cancer Institute at Mulago for further examination. His case was found to be severe.

It was during the early days of the Covid-19 restrictions on travel that the doctors broke the news that would forever change Gumikiriza’s life. They had found that the scaly reddish patches in the skin were malignant early symptoms of skin cancer. The shocking news left him in a state of limbo causing undue stress and upsets.  “It was so painful” said Gumikiriza.

Until then, the finances had fallen apart. Gumikiriza had sold off his BJ’s Bar in Seguku while his mother had borrowed in excess of Shs1m to take care of the medical bills. Gumikiriza relocated from Seguku to Kikubankima in Mukono, where he has an incomplete house to manage rent fees. “It was one of those times where everything just kind of stopped momentarily. He would sit in that car seat,” his wife Betty Mbabazi said pointing to the improvised grey chair in their cubby sitting room littered with trophies and medals Gumikiriza has won in his illustrious career.

Chemotherapy treatment
The two-time national pool champion (2012 and 2015), who is the national team captain, was admitted into the Cancer Institute at Mulago Hospital, and on April 20, 2020 he started the first round of chemotherapy treatment  to kill the normally fast-growing cancerous cells in the body. This was the first step to the long road of recovery, but Gumikiriza was not in this battle alone. His wife and three children rallied behind him, cheered him on, and showed their support. The Pool Association (Pau) members too, stood by him. Pau held online fundraising activities where fans and well-wishers helped raise funds to put toward medical expenses.

But the efforts were not enough. The sport of pool is majorly amateur and his club, Giants Pool Club in Ntinda, whom he helped win their first national trophy in the truncated season, were unable to do their part. “The pool fraternity,” he said, “was a family from God”.
Gumikiriza took chemo head on and spent more than 100 days on the treatment. Style is what defined probably Uganda’s best pool player in the recent past. He always exhibited admirable personal qualities with neatly cut hair while sporting trademark dark fashion glasses. He has now lost his hair, has had to learn how to walk again, and lost more than 10 kilos. 

“It is a fight for life which strips away to what you have always considered important in life,” said Gumikiriza.
He has gone through numerous ups and downs including having to change school for his children, one of whom is a Primary Seven candidate from Seguku to a cheaper one in Iganga.
But to him the memories of his doctors, nurses, and fellow patients, brought him light. The hours in the hospital are not just consumed by treatments and despair but also glimpses of joy. “I am thankful to God that I am alive,” he sighed as he sank the black at his pool table in the shade of his rented house.

He has made friends with people in the village who distinguish him as champion. Some actually come to his house where he established a boutique for his wife, for a game of pool. On October 5, his cancer journey could come to a close but he is anxious whether he will have the all-clear cancer-free report.

“With cancer, you have to be strong because even the treatment is really tough,” said Gumikiriza who complements the treatment with fresh fruit juices and the magical ramphal fruit ((kitafeeri).
His journey has been one filled with numerous challenges exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, but through it all, he stayed hopeful telling himself to keep faith and fight.