Well-wishers help Mercy to pay mother's medical bill
Days after Nation.co.ke carried a story of a second year university student from Nakuru who helped her ailing mother to pay her hospital bill using her Helb loan, well-wishers have offered to help her in her studies.
Touched by the story, the well-wishers have also pledged to help her sick mother.
Speaking to the Nation on Thursday, 21-year-old Mercy Omukuba, who is pursuing a degree in procurement at the Egerton University, said she has been receiving calls from well-wishers both in Kenya and from abroad.
OVERWHELMED
“I’m so overwhelmed. My heart is full of joy. My mother finally got a bill waiver at Nakuru Level Five Hospital on Wednesday where she had been detained for five weeks for failing to clear over Sh35,000 bill,” said the cheerful Ms Omukuba.
“I was at home preparing porridge to take to her during the next visit when she called to inform me that she had been allowed to leave the hospital,” she added.
Ms Omukuba’s mother, Linet Wabuko, 45, was admitted to the Margaret Kenyatta Mother Baby Wing after she was diagnosed with stage one cervical cancer.
DETAINED
But doctors could not let Ms Wabuko leave the hospital unless she paid at least 75 percent of her bill.
“All the Sh20,000 Helb money that I had received for my second semester in August is finished. I paid for the theatre charges, cancer drugs and admission but still it was not enough. My mother had no NHIF card and I was also asked to apply one for her,” said Ms Omukuba.
Ms Omukuba now says the help from well-wishers is a welcome relief.
“I actually didn’t see it coming. I wanted to go back to the county government offices and remind the officials about my plight. I wanted to do it again,” she said.
TRENDING
“A friend called me early in the morning at about 5.30am. I was still in bed. She told me that I was trending on social media. I wanted to know why and she revealed to me that my story had been published on the Daily Nation website and the link was all over the campus WhatsApp groups, Facebook and Twitter,” she said.
She added that a while later, phone calls started coming and people wanted to confirm if she was the person in the story.
MONEY FLOWS IN
“I was nervous and some calls went unanswered. I couldn’t believe how people suddenly became so generous,” Ms Omukuba stated.
By Thursday afternoon, she said she had received thousands of shillings towards her mother’s treatment of who is currently at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital for further treatment.
Her mother also expressed gratitude to the well-wishers.
“God is faithful. I still do not know how to express the joy that is running in my heart. I feel much better; I feel strong despite the illness. I have faith that I’m going to make it. Blessings to all who have come to the aid of my daughter and my treatment; it is well,” she told the Nation by phone.
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