Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month
In our efforts to continue creating awareness, we held our second Medical camp of the year 2023 courtesy of our partners over at Barika Medical Center an NHIF approved center that has been keen to help us create thyroid disease awareness by offering quality and affordable treatment to our thyroid champions. Since our partnership, over 14 thyroid patients have had succesful thyroid surgeries at Barika Medical Center covered by the NHIF Card. Dr. Wambugu, the thyroid surgeon at Barika Medical center

Giving a thyroid talk at Dalitos Phones & Accessories.

Thyroid Disease Awareness at Dalitos
Our county ambassador in the North Rift part of Kenya and its environs Champ Evangeline Gitonga accidentally bumped into Julius Andove , a young man in his early 20’s standing at a phone and accessory sales shop. Just one look and our county representative was able to detect that Julius was showing symptoms of chronic hyperthyroidism, a swollen neck (goitre) and bulging red eyes. She approached him to see if he was on any medical care,and through his story, our rep determined that Julius is an orphan who works at a shop that sells phones and phone accessories in order to take care of his younger siblings. Julius knew that something was wrong about his health, but did not know where or how to begin, and neither did he have the funds to facilitate for any medical care. Champ Evangeline a Nurse at a local public hospital in the region, was able to help him get his Thyroid Function tests done, his results came back as follows;

FT4-100.0 (normal-12.0-22.0)

FT350.00 (normal-3.10-6.80)

TSH-0.0005 (normal-0.270-4.2)

Extremely high levels of thyroid hormones in his body showing that he was headed down the road of a thyroid storm had we not intervened when we did. Due to his situation, he has been unable to pay for his NHIF and hence was a defaulter.

On learning about his story, our members here at the TDAK Foundation begun making contributions towards facilitating his treatment.We have been able to pay for his NHIF, and some have offered to get him a few month’s supply of drugs too.

Julius’ story led us to his place of work where his employer invited our team to their offices to create thyroid disease awareness and speak to the rest of Julius’ workmates and colleagues about thyroid disease, how to diagnose it, and how to find treatment within Eldoret and the neighbouring region. Above all , we taught them on how to take care, support and help Julius in his journey of living with this disease. By the time our team left, his employer had offered to pay for one year of his NHIF membership. This will go a long way in enabling Julius to undergo thyroid surgery once his thyroid levels are balanced.