After seven months of undergoing treatment for
Lymphoma, a type of cancer of the blood, in
Platinum Medical Centre, Wellington , London ,
Nwachukwu Ozioko, popularly known as Vast of the singing group, Bracket is back. He returned to the country last week and was treated to a grand reception by his friends. In this interview,Vast who is still recuperating recounts how he battled with the deadly disease and came out alive.
Q--How did it happen?
I don't know what to say, but first of all, I want to give thanks to God. I was very sick. Before I
went to the hospital, I attended a couple of
shows. I wondered how I was able to perform at
the shows because I was seriously ill. My partner,Obumneme Ali a.k.a Smash and I had series of shows and in a situation where payment has been made, I had no option than to grace the stage. We decided to round off our shows late last year in order to enable me take care of my health in 2013. But unfortunately, up till January,this year, we were still going for concerts. We even had to travel to Australia to stage a concert.
Then, I was visiting one of the hospitals in Lagos,
and that was where I was diagnosed. They
carried out all the medical examinations, and
when the results came out, the Haematologist
advised me to seek for further treatment
abroad.
If you have travelled to America or any Schengen
country within two years, you can apply for a
Priority Visa and we were qualified to do so.
We applied and within four days, the visa came
out. We met a friend in the UK who introduced
us to his brother who is a Medical Doctor. He
assisted us and we met a Haematologist who
advised that I should re-run all the tests again.
The only thing we didn't do was the surgery
which I did back home before I was diagnosed of
suffering from blood cancer. After everything,
they started with the treatment they called 'Bone Marrow'. It wasn't an easy one, it was very difficult. I thought I would loose all the blood in my body but thank God I survived it. After a week, I started having complications, I had to return to the hospital to have blood transfusion after which I felt better. We spent a lot of money.At a point, I was hopeless and was only praying to God for His mercies.
After the second chemotherapy, I started
exercising because the doctor advised me to do
regular exercise. However, it was after the third
chemotherapy that the pictures I took while in
the hospital leaked. By then, I was already
bouncing back to life because I passed through
the valley of the shadow of death. After the
fourth chemotherapy, we shot a video,
'Temperature' in London .
I didn't even know I could do that. I initially
thought the cycle would be six but before the
fifth chemotherapy, the doctor informed us that
it was going to be eight. I got confused at that
point and even doubted what they were doing. I
thought they just wanted to milk me because it
was expensive. My manager, partner and Chief
Executive Office however encouraged me to
complete the treatment.
I was only going to the hospital, then to the
gymnasium and back to the house. After the
seventh chemo, I was told to do a Lumber Punch-
they would have to inject my spine. It was done
after the fifth chemo and it was very painful. I
thought I would be paralysed. I was told the
Lumber Punch was necessary to prevent the
disease from getting to the brain. At that point,
our account was almost in the red.
Luckily, a friend known as Ugonna came to
London during my third chemo and was moved
when he heard that we had accommodation
problem. He later gave us some money to look
for one. Ugonna was the only person that
assisted me financially apart from the prayers
and encouragement of my fans and the media. I
did the Lumber Punch and lost a lot of blood.
Two days after, I went to get another chemo.
When one undergoes chemo, it kills both the
good and the bad cells and flushes out all the
blood in your system. So, you have to be
refreshing. Imagine losing so much blood after
the Lumber Punch and after the chemo. I was
almost a dead person.My colour overnight. I
remembered what the doctor told me that cancer is not the problem but the treatment.
After a week and a half, I started exercising,
taking juice and everything that would help build my blood again. I was finally cleared from the hospital and I thank God for His mercies. A lot of people came to our house to rejoice with us
when we returned to the country during the
week. I want to thank them. The likes of P-
Square, Jimmy Jatt, Dammy Krane, KCee,
Chidinma, Illbliss, JMartins and many others.
Q--What kind of cancer did you have?
I had Lymphoma. It is a blood cancer. When I
asked the doctor what could the cancer of the
blood, he said, nobody knows the cause for now.
According to him, it's like a situation where a
dark complexion couple making a baby and the
baby turns out to be an albino and if you are
asked to explain why, you cannot tell.
I must say that when I was hospitalised, my
partner was doing a good job. He would call the
producer and they would make a beat and send it to me. He even made the chorus. I picked one of
the songs when I came back and hit the studio.
We did one of the tracks, it was fantastic. We did another song and it was good as well, all within two days.
Vast and Smash
Q--During the seven months of your ordeal, what
kept you going?
What kept me going was God. Before I went for
the treatment, I saw myself dying slowly. We got the visa and contacted the Medical Doctor that attended to us. It was no doubt the handiwork of God. This doctor handles only cancer related cases.My family, my manager, partner and CEO were there for me. We travelled together. They made sure I was well taken care of, while my ordeal lasted.
Interestingly, when the picture I took while in
the hospital leaked, I was reading the outpour of
love, prayers and soothing words from my fans.
Some of them even said, they would die if I die.
Then the press guys were there for me. They
were keeping tabs of my progress and informing
my fans duly. All of these, did a whole lot in
keeping me going. That's why I got the courage
and I know that it has always been God, my
family, the media and my fans.
What have you learnt from your experience?
I learnt that life is very precious. No matter what you do and wherever you are, don't look down on anybody because you don't know who will help you tomorrow. Another thing is that you don't have to be scared of death. You have to face the challenge. Live a normal life. If you are
scared of death, you will die. At a point, when I
got very scared, the sickness came in full force,
but when I started picking courage, it subsided
and I recovered.
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