Grace

Meet Grace....
She is a 50 year old lady who is a Sports coach at the local women's prison. She has attended courses in South Africa to become a certified coach and she has been able to teach boxing, cricket, football and handball. 5 months ago she found a lump in her breast. She has breast cancer. She lives in a country with limited resources and limited finances to do anything about this tumor growing inside her chest. She comes to Mercy Ship for surgery to remove the tumor which she would not have been able to afford to have here in Freetown. We have no resources to give her the medication she needs so she needed to find her own supply of Tamoxifen. She has been able to do this as she has some family in Australia but it is distressing to see the difference in how a women with breast cancer in England and Africa is treated. In England, within two weeks of a referral the lady is seen and a plan of action is made in regards to getting rid of the cancer that is growing.

Grace is one of many women here who have probably found lumps and never been able to do anything about it because they cant afford surgery and they are too scared to go to the doctor. So they live with the cancer and they allow it to eat away at their bodies until they cannot provide for their families anymore. I had the honor of looking after Grace at length this week and I had so many opportunities to chat, pray and read the bible together which was such a blessing to us both. We spent half an hour together singing and praising our God (Oh Happy Day & Our God is an Awesome God) while removing her staples and dressing her wound on her chest. It was such a breath of fresh air to be able to release such a big part of my life into the open and into my patient care rather than suppressing it and worrying every time God's name is mentioned at work that someone might be offended. Her faith in God is amazing and so strong. Pray that she holds onto the promises that He is with her and will strengthen and guide her through the hard times. She has three girls (one who she adopted) and because she has pain in her hips and the back of her head we are worried the cancer may have spread but there is nothing we can do. We have managed to contain a problem that may spread and become fatal for her.

Remember her in your prayers.