Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

From Bracket, lifeline comes for cancer patients

By Chuks Nwanne
25 June 2016   |   2:35 am
Dressed in casual outfits, the duo of Obumneme Ali (Smash) and Nwachukwu Ozioko (Vast) of Bracket music group, stepped into the bar on this day beaming with smiles. You could feel their excitement ...

Bracket

Dressed in casual outfits, the duo of Obumneme Ali (Smash) and Nwachukwu Ozioko (Vast) of Bracket music group, stepped into the bar on this day beaming with smiles. You could feel their excitement, as they chitchatted in low tones, while fiddling with their phones. Obviously, they were eager to make the big announcement; unveil Bracket Foundation in support of cancer patients.

Recall that few years ago, one half of Bracket music group, Nwachukwu Ozioko, was diagnosed of blood cancer called Lymphoma. All efforts to get treatment at home failed, forcing the singer to seek treatment in the United Kingdom, specifically at the Platinum Medical Centre, Wellington, London.

After seven months of treatment that involved several chemotherapy cycles, Vast as he’s fondly called, survived and was discharged from the London hospital to recuperate at home. Upon return to Nigeria, friends, colleagues and family members treated the singer to a grand reception and thanksgiving to God for saving his life.

Having survived the ailment, the group has set up the Bracket Foundation, with a mission to raise fund for treatment of cancer patients in Nigeria, especially those, who are not buoyant enough to seek treatment abroad. The big picture, however, is to set up an oncology centre in Lagos where cancer patients can be tested and treated.

Billed for July 3, 2016, at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, the unveiling ceremony will see Vast share his experience with the audience, while a short documentary on his battles with cancer will also be screened. To be spiced with music and comedy performances, the session, which will also host some cancer patients, will also feature his doctor in the UK, who will speak via video on cancer and his experience with Vast’s case.

Already, a couple of Nigerian artistes have joined the campaign ahead of the event, which will be used as a platform to raise money to support the initiative and give lifeline to patients.

“At least, it came close to us; we never expected it. While growing up, we’ve always seen cancer as a big man’s sickness; we felt if you don’t have billions, you can’t have cancer. But now that it came close to us, we now know that cancer doesn’t respect age or gender. The last time we were in the United Kingdom, we saw a 15 year-old girl that was suffering from leukemia, which is blood cancer; it’s even more deadly. A lot of people are suffering from cancer and that’s why we want to do something in that direction because it actually affected us,” Smash hinted.

According to the singer, a lot of people are dying of cancer today, adding that early detection is the only way to save such people.

“We were in London for like six months and I came back. I went to a hospital in Lagos and discovered that a lot of people were finding it difficult to pay for their chemotherapy. Most of these hospitals have great doctors, but they don’t have facilities. So, when you look at these people, chances of surviving are very low.”

Citing a particular case in Lagos, the light skinned singer recalled, “I actually saw some people that went home to raise money from the village for one chemotherapy cycle; they needed to do like eight, but they were finding it difficult to raise money to do the first one. When that person is running round for the money, the cancer is spreading.”

He continued: “I actually saw one man with a swollen ear and they told me they asked him to go and raise N150,000 and it took him like three months. By the time he returned, his ear was swollen. Some of these people find it difficult to talk about their challenges; they don’t want neigbours to know they have money issues on treatment,” Smash said.

The target for now, according to Vast, is to, at least, raise funds for people, who cannot afford to do the chemotherapy. However, the major plan is to set up one good oncology centre in Lagos for free testing.

“With early detection, you can actually deal with it; you can even use antibiotics to cure it. But the problem we have here is that we don’t have enough facility for people to know the stage of their cancer; once it affects the organs, nothing can be done,” Vast said.

Sharing his experience, singer, who now looks hale and hearty, recalled that, “the first thing the doctor told me was, ‘you have this cancer but it can be cured because, it didn’t affect any part of your organs. Both the lungs, kidney and liver are safe.’ Another thing I asked from God was to give me love and he gave it to me; people around me didn’t back out. They all gave me courage, they supported me; they were with me throughout the whole treatment. It was a horrible experience,” he noted.

Obviously, the artistes didn’t see the situation coming, but somehow, they braced up for the challenge. All through the long battle against cancer, they were positive.

“I made him to understand that it’s just a normal sickness that he will get over it. But inside me, I was scared; he was going down. We went to certain hospitals around to get test result and know what was wrong with him. But for over four months, we couldn’t get any answer and he was going down by the day. Later, one of the doctors advised us to go to London and seek for solution,” Smash hinted.

Lamenting the state of health sector in Nigeria, he said, “we have great doctors here, but we don’t have the facilities. And a lot of people have this money to invest for people to get tested for cancer and get treated, but they rather just throw it away. To set up oncology centre in any part of Nigeria will cost up to three million to five million dollars, but people use it as change in Nigeria.”

To the singer, though a terminal disease, most cancer death could have been avoided, if detected early, adding that lack of facilities has made cancer look more like death sentence in Nigeria.

“You know, when someone dies on this issue, people might say ‘it’s the will of God.’ But that person could have been saved if we have the facilities. If he (Vast) had spent more than four months in Nigeria, I don’t think he would have survived. We went to London and the test result came out in two days; treatment started in three days. He was having a cycle every three weeks and a lot of money was being paid.”

Each time vast visited the London hospital for chemotherapy cycle, 6000 pounds leave the Bracket bank account.

“It’s not everybody that can afford that, but we can actually afford that in Nigeria if people support it. A lot of these billionaires, they have a lot of money to save lives, but the sad part of it is that a lot of poor people are dying because; they don’t have anybody to help them,” he lamented.

Meanwhile, all through the period Vast was down with cancer in the United Kingdom, Smash was by his sick bed, working and praying for his recovery. In fact, nothing was heard about Bracket as a music group.

“After the love I saw that he gave me, I don’t think that anything will make me part ways with him. When you look at somebody that truly loves you, you won’t hurt that person, except you are very stupid. Yes, we fight, but after that, we just forget it. I can also say it’s the grace of God; that grace of God will tell you the right thing to do. It’s not like we are perfect,” Vast said.

“First of all, what we did was to transfer 80 per cent of Bracket’s money to the card that we were going to use to treat him. So, even if I decided to run, I won’t go with anything. That card was registered with the hospital and we paid the bill from there. I think on pound was like N250 then and we have naira in the account; whatever was going out was going out times two. We didn’t really feel it while we were in London, but when we came home and saw the alerts everybody was like, ‘hey!’ but at the end of the day, we thank God that life was saved,” Smash said.

About the time Vast was receiving treatment in London, new of death of Nigerian singer Goldie broke.

“I was like, ‘Jesus Christ, why now?’ I was even the one telling him, ‘please, don’t do excise again.’ He started running after the first chemotherapy. Till date, every morning, he runs like 50 laps,” he said.

Asked if he ever thought of giving up on his sick partner, Smash said, “never, the only thing I was praying he gets better because, I didn’t know what I would tell his people. If anything happened and you go to the east, some people might be like, ‘don’t mind him; e be like say him don take am do ritual come here dey tell story.’ All my prayer was that he should get better.”

Unlike most cases, where the art community organizes fund raising to save a member, Bracket took care all medical bills for Vast’s treatments.

“We don’t share money; if we are used to sharing money, there won’t have been money for the treatment. People will say, ‘na so Igbo people dey do,’ but I believe in saving for the rainy days,” Vast hinted.

“If actually we share money, maybe one of us would have used his share for something else, then we go to the public to seek for donation. People would have said, ‘ah, what happened to all their Yori Yori money,” Smash said.

While assuring that Bracket Foundation would operate with the highest level of transparency, Smash said, ‘we can’t, as Bracket, put our name on a foundation and it won’t be as transparent as possible. However, the other side of it is, we pray we would have the fund to treat some of these children,” he quizzed.

On the involvement of Banky W for the official launch of the foundation, Smash explained that, “he had the same experience, so, he’s going to talk about it. We intend to have some cancer patients there or their pictures so that people will actually see whom they are donating to. We are talking to big companies to see if they can join us. A lot of artistes are already part of the campaign and we’ve done some recordings, which we will play on radio and TV station to create awareness.”

According to the group, money raised through the initiative will be used to treat some of the cancer patients in London.

“By next time we will be doing this programme, they will be there to talk as survivors. So, it’s going to be a continuous and very transparent process. Should we get the money to set up an oncology centre in Lagos and actually employ good doctors that will work their, that will be great. But we have to start from somewhere; we have to at least tell Nigerians that we have good doctors but we don’t have the facilities.”

If there’s one man, who is excited about the initiative, it is the boss of NairaBet, Akin Alabi.

“He’s really passionate about the idea and he want to get involved. I will say he’s the oil person that believes in this initiative,”

For the both singers, unhealthy lifestyle is a major challenge facing Nigerian artistes.

“Because someone came into the club and popped 10 bottles of champagne is not enough for you to do that. You don’t say because I’m Bracket, people need to see me drinking bottle. You don’t have to be in the club everyday; some people go to the club everyday. If you can afford it, fine, but you have to manage yourself well. You might not be that artiste again if people donate money to treat you. Yes, they love you and paid for your treatment, but behind you they will say, ‘he will go and throw his money again.”

0 Comments