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.
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