On April 10th, members of the Go-After Care Initiative team had the privilege of visiting a resilient cancer patient in Mowokekere, a community in Ikorodu, Lagos State.
She welcomed us warmly, but shared a distressing struggle: severe constipation caused by her medication. It was a symptom that drained her comfort and dignity, yet felt too “small” to make the long, tiring trip to a tertiary hospital.
With deep respect and empathy, we sat beside her. We listened to her experience, provided professional guidance on nutritional support, emphasizing increased vegetable and fluid intake, and offered practical, gentle strategies for relief. We shared words of encouragement and joined her in prayer for renewed strength and healing.
Her story reflects what countless patients suffer within the community, managing life-limiting illnesses while lacking access to basic symptom control close to home. No one should be allowed to travel hours for relief from pain, nausea, or constipation when such care can and should be available in their community.
Go-After Care Initiative is committed to advocating for course. We go beyond hospital walls to deliver compassionate, professional palliative care support where patients live. We affirm their dignity, ease their suffering, and walk with families through each stage of their journey.
We humbly raise our voice in advocacy to call for the integration of palliative care into Primary Health Centers across Nigeria. Because timely, local access to symptom management is not a luxury, it is a right.
Our NGO remain steadfast in our commitment: to serve with excellence, to care with empathy, and to ensure that no one in our communities faces serious illness alone.
GACI Care!
