20 year old Ashleigh is in her second year of development studies at Mulungushi University in Kabwe. She developed head and neck cancer and was treated at Lusaka’s Cancer Diseases Hospital’s paediatric ward. In 2016, over a hundred children received cancer treatment free of charge, enabling more of Zambia’s children to get well and to get back to normal.
I was 15 when doctors told me the swelling in my neck was cancer. I thought it was mumps so I didn’t think it was anything serious.
This was in 2012. We were on holiday in Choma, Southern province when my aunt’s friend was concerned about the lump and told my mother to have it checked. She said it’s the smallest things that turn out to be very serious.
We went to the General Hospital in Livingstone near where we lived and they put me on antibiotics. But it didn’t help.
The doctor told me I should go to the University Training Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka to work out what it was. Leaving my friends and family behind was hard for me, and this happened during term time so I had to juggle this with my school work. At least I was able to stay with my mother’s friend in Lusaka who I knew, but it wasn’t home.
