Chronicle Editor
Flora Fadzai Sibanda, Chronicle Reporter
WHILE many parents look forward to seeing their children go through life’s milestones on their journey into adulthood, Ms Virginia Mabhena is hoping for a miracle for her son who is battling Stage 4 cancer.
When cancer is at stage 4 it may also be called advanced or metastatic cancer which means that it has spread to other organs or parts of the body.
Ms Mabhena of Mpopoma suburb was told by doctors to go home and wait for the “Lord’s day” while in the meantime giving her son Warona Dube morphine, which is medication that is used to treat severe pain.
Warona was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer which originates in the part of the eye called the retina.
Eye cancer, which usually occurs in children around the age of two and is seldom found in children older than six, accounts for about two percent of childhood cancers.
Ms Mabhena said her son was born in Botswana with an “irregular eye” which doctors dismissed as something that he was going to outgrow.
She said she came to visit her relatives in Zimbabwe last year in December and a lot of people kept on asking her what was wrong with her child’s eye.
Ms Mabhena said she then decided to take the child to Mzilikazi Clinic in April this year after she realised he was now swelling and getting worse.
“When l went to Mzilikazi Clinic, the sister in charge told me l had been keeping a very sick child at home so l should take him to Richard Morris Hospital because his condition was critical. At that time, she had not clearly told me what it is that my child was suffering from,” she said.
Ms Mabhena said she was told to book an appointment with a doctor at the hospital and was told to return with her child in July.
She said when she returned, doctors were surprised that staff at the hospital had told her to wait for that long when her child was sick.
“The doctor immediately told me by merely looking at him that it was eye cancer. He did scans just to prove his diagnosis and put it on paper. Indeed, it was eye cancer called retinoblastoma,” she said.
Ms Mabhena said the moment she heard this, she was heartbroken and confused.
She said she was referred to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare.
At Parirenyatwa, Ms Mabhena was told that her son’s cancer was at stage 4, having spread to his brain.
Doctors suggested that the eye could be removed but emphasized that it was not going to help him in any way.
“His father refused the surgery since doctors had said it was not going to help him. Doctors told me to take him home and keep him comfortable because there was nothing that could be done,” she said.
Ms Mabhena said her son is now surviving on morphine to manage the pain.
The right side of Warona’s face is swollen and he occasionally rubs his eyes showing the discomfort he feels.
Ms Mabhena is appealing to well-wishers who might offer her medication for her son.
“I am now looking for a miracle because l have been told by the doctors that we should wait for the Lord’s day. As it is, l do not have money to buy his medication that is why he is restless,” she said.
Ms Mabhena can be contacted on +263 780671962
– @flora_sibanda
Online Reporter