‘My battle with blood cancer’ - Vast of Bracket

Nwachukwu Ozioko is one of the duo that make up the music group, Bracket, that recorded the monster hit song, Yori Yori. It was therefore disheartening for their fans when it was disclosed earlier this year that he had cancer and was receiving treatment in London. He finally returned to the country last week and speaks about his battle with cancer

Many Nigerians find it extremely difficult to speak of their health problems. Can you tell us about yours?

Well, I used to feel sick, and then I got very, very sick, and I used to go to this hospital in Nigeria, that’s where I was diagnosed, they ran all the tests and when the results came out, the haematologist adviced us to go outside the country. There’s nothing wrong with our country, but he adviced us to go outside, and we had to go to UK. Even to get the visa, we first of all applied for a normal visa, but when we got there, luckily for us, we saw that they have this priority visa, if you have travelled to America, to any Schengen country or to Australia within two years, you can apply for a priority visa, and we were qualified, so we applied, and within three, four days, the visa came out. And luckily, in the UK, we met my friend whose brother is a doctor and he spoke to his brother so we could get an easy appointment with an haematologist he referred us to. When we met the haematologist, he said we had to redo all the tests we had done in Nigeria. Of course they had to. And afterwards, they said they were ready to start the treatment. They started with bone marrow. And it wasn’t an easy one. It was very, very difficult. I thought I would lose all the blood in my body, but glory be to God, I survived it. The first chemotherapy was also very difficult because after one week, I started having problems, due to lack of blood, so I had to go to the hospital again, and I had blood transfusion. And after it, thank God it worked well, I got back to myself. The money was very expensive, though. Just for one night, we paid a whole lot of money. And then I had the second chemo and one week after it, I started exercising because the doctor said you don’t have to stay and wait for the medication to work on its own, you have to exercise, even if it’s just one minute of exercise. And it was after the third chemotherapy that my hospital picture leaked, that made the whole world know I had cancer, but by then I was already returning to being a human being, because I was dead already. After the fourth chemotherapy, we shot the video of Temperature in London. I didn’t even know I could do it, but I had gained weight by then. Normally, the chemotherapy cycle was supposed to be six, but the haematologist told us it would be eight instead, and I said to myself, maybe they don’t know what they are doing, maybe they want to eat our money, but my partner, my manager, my CEO, they gave me the courage that since I’ve done four chemo cycles, there’s nothing to stop me doing the remaining four. So I was very, very down but I had to pick courage. Then after the last chemo, they said I would have to do a lumber punch, inject my spine. They did it after the fifth chemo, it was very, very difficult, I thought I was going to be paralysed, but glory be to God, I came through it. And they said they had to do it again to prevent the disease getting to the brain. But by then, we were already going down when it comes to pocket. But I had to do it.

Can you tell us yourself exactly what sort of cancer you had?

I had lymphoma, cancer of the blood, and I asked the doctor, what’s the cause, and he said, nobody knows the cause for now, that it’s just like two black people giving birth to an albino, you cannot explain why it was so.

So what really kept you going?

First of all, it’s God. Before I went there, I saw myself dying, but we got the visa, which was the handwork of God, we went there, we got the link to the haematologist who takes care of cancer alone and we were able to get an easy link, I said oh, God is working. That was part of the courage. And my family, my partner, my CEO, my manager, they were all there for me, we all travelled together, they make sure I eat, drink my juice, take my medication, that was the second courage. And when my hospital picture leaked, I was reading and all my fans were praying for me, and some said if this guy dies, I’m gonna die, and I was like oh my God, I have to survive, plus the media that made everyone hear all the prayers, that also gave me courage.

What have you learnt from the experience?

First of all, I learnt that life is very, very precious. No matter what you do or wherever you are, don’t look down on anybody because you don’t know who will help you tomorrow. And another thing is that you don’t have to be scared of death, just live your normal life and if death comes, don’t say it will be the end, just don’t worry yourself because if you are scared of death, you will die. But if you are not … at a point, when I was very, very scared, that was when the sickness came in full, but when I started getting courage, I stood up, what is this, I’m not scared anymore, if it will happen, let it happen, and nothing has happened, and nothing will happen.

How did it even begin?

(Smash responds) Basically, from time to time, he had been complaining of chest pain, and he goes to a doctor who gives him some drugs, but after a while, he will complain again. Then it got so bad in the last week of October that we had to go to the so-called biggest hospital in Lagos. Well, they tried their best, but it wasn’t good enough because it took us three months to get their test results, and that’s why we were going for all the concerts we had last year, and he was able to perform because we had a drug that would give him some energy on stage. But finally we had to cancel everything as Nigerian doctors were confused, one would tell us I suspect tuberculosis, another would say I suspect a growth. A growth is cancer already, but they didn’t want to say it, and they kept us in suspense and everybody was scared that we don’t know what’s going on, but when we got to London, it took them just two days to get the test results out and the treatment started that week. Here, they treat cancer patients like animals because of lack of funds but over there, it’s the opposite, their reception is fantastic that you forget it’s cancer they are treating.

So you feel if he didn’t go to London, he would have died?

(Smash responds again) I can’t really say he would have, but I will do say he would have had a very slim chance. For instance, the UK doctor told us that in the three-month period we were waiting for the test results to come out here, the thing was getting worse.