Uganda to Carlingford via Hospice. July 3rd Cycle.

‘When you are heading through Uganda, you must visit my friend Ita’, said my good pal Louis. Dr. Ita Harnett is an Irish pallative care consultant, who at the time was working with Hospice Africa Uganda as Clinical Director. This was several years ago. Now I wonder if they both regret the introduction!

You see, I took Louis’ advice. There was me, with a backpack almost bigger than myself, rolling into Kampala, somewhat dusty from the red earth clay of Africa.

I remember the day I met Ita. She was friendly, warm, remarkably welcoming and carrying one of the most colourful bags I have ever seen. She had been in Uganda a while. ‘You are welcome to use my place as a base’, she said to me over a coffee. A few hours later the entire contents of my backpack were emptied out onto her spare room floor. They stayed there for a month.

That one line is now a running joke between us all.  ‘Using my place as a base’ was interpreted quite liberally. Ita and I had hit it off immediately. We talked and talked and laughed and laughed. On the dark nights, when power was cut- a 24 hour on/ off affair in Kampala- we played a lot of scrabble. It was also one of the most inspiring months of my life.

I stayed with Ita in Makindye, a district of Kampala which also hosts Hospice Africa Uganda’s main headquarters. I was writing ‘One Wild Life’ at the time. During the day I would head out to interview people and visit different projects but would pop in and out of Hospice, learning more about their work along the way.  I’m so glad I did.

Hospice work is hard, rewarding, challenging, and often goes unnoticed. In the aid world, it is not ‘sexy’. Lives are not generally saved nor is the deep pain of loss alleviated. There are no quick wins. There are no radical solutions. Life is life, and with it comes the inevitability of death. Hospice does not try to mask that but it does try to maintain dignity in the process, ease pain where pain can be eased and allow deep humanity to shine. Each day I was in Hospice I saw that humanity, real and raw.

The Hospice was founded by Dr. Anne Merriman, who was a pioneer of palliative care in East Africa. Realising the importance of pain relief and maintaining dignity in dying, Dr Anne (as she is affectionately known) helped to build a care centre in Uganda. Now there is a training and education programme, a day care unit, a pharmacy, teams which work in collaboration with the main cancer hospitals, as well as several outreach homecare units. There are also two other hospices in the more rural districts of Uganda.

There have been innovations too. In the pharmacy, powdered morphine is imported into the country. It is then made into liquid form, dyed with different food colouring to represent different concentrations and distributed in recycled plastic bottles. For the price of a loaf a bread a patient can now have pain relief for up to 12 days.

While staying with Ita I also had a chance to go on some home care visits she made. Where patients are too ill to travel to the day wards, Hospice staff make home visits- administering care, advice, pain-relief and family support. As much as they are clinicians they are also counsellors. Sometimes it would take hours to reach a home, driving over bumpy road after bumpier road, and then over tracks which in only  some countries warrant the label of ‘road’. This takes commitment.

I was impressed. Very impressed. The following year I returned to Uganda on some other work and while there offered to do a photoshoot for the Hospice. This time I spent three days documenting various aspect of their services and work- meeting patients both in the main Hospice and on home visits and incorporating a visit to the Children’s cancer ward in Mulago general hospital in Kampala- an experience I will carry with me for my lifetime.

I learnt that patients tend to present for treatment at a later stage in much of Africa. As a result you see patients with prolific cancers and tumors. There is one strain of cancer, Burkitt’s Lymphoma, which is particularly prevalent in the region and particularly common in children. It results in large facial growths and swellings. The medical staff are  in some ways immune to the sight of it, but the first time I saw it my stomach wrenched. It is not a sight I want to see again in the near future. The staff there, however, don’t have a choice. Treatment is their priority.

Since I returned to Ireland, Ita has returned too. I consider her now one of my closest and most wonderful friends. She is one of those gems in life which you know to treasure. So when she asked me this year to be on the Hospice Africa Ireland steering committee, a support charity which fundraises and promotes the work of Hospice Uganda, I naturally said yes- with pleasure.

And with that also comes this opportunity:

Hospice Africa Ireland are hosting a number of events in the coming months to support the work in Uganda. The first is their annual cycle, this year taking place around the stunning  Carlingford Lough on Sunday July 3rd. The money raised will go to support the work of Hospice Uganda.  There is a short(ish) route, and a longer one too. Transport will be available from Dublin and the route has been carefully selected by an experienced cycling company. What they can not guarantee however is good weather, so waterproofing is suggested.  Lunch and back-up support are also provided.

For more information and registration http://hospiceafrica.ie/get-involved or contact Stephen Cassidy in the Hospice Africa Ireland office on: 01 406 8708

(All photos taken and shared with permission from Hospice Africa Uganda, their staff and their patients).