My name is Andrew, I am a Canadian/Australian doctor volunteering in Uganda, and I have the pleasure of sharing Fiona’s story on behalf of their family and most importantly Fiona: Fiona was born on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda in the suburb of Makindye in 1989. She is a proud big sister of 11 siblings and loved to dance growing up; if you ever needed to find Fiona you just had to follow the music! She is also one smart cookie! After finishing high school in 2007 she enrolled and successfully completed a diploma in supply chain management and always dreamed big of becoming the CEO of her own business. She welcomed to the world her first baby, a beautiful daughter named Nantale “Myles” Esther in 2012. With low employment rates and family financial struggles, Fiona left in 2014 to work as a maid in Dubai to support her family. Due to her declining respiratory health, she returned to Uganda in 2018 and eventually gave birth to her gorgeous son Semanbo “Micah” Joseph in 2024. Unfortunately, in 2024 Fiona’s health dramatically declined and she was diagnosed with a progressive, irreversible and ultimately fatal lung disease known as Pulmonary Hypertension (PH). Fiona developed PH due to a fibrosing lung disease which was sadly misdiagnosed and mistreated and permanently scarred her lungs. Treatment for this type of PH is complex, expensive, and ultimately requires a lung transplant in order to survive. Over the last year, Fiona’s lungs now require supplemental oxygen to continue living. Home oxygen tanks are a logistical nightmare to refill and are simply not an option for most Ugandans living outside the city. A second and final option for patients like Fiona is a home oxygen concentrator, however, these cost ~$1750 CDN which Fiona’s family cannot afford, leaving her no choice but to remain in hospital. For nearly 10 months, Fiona has shared a room with 14 other sick women away from her kids, family and loved ones. Each basic hospital bed comes with no pillow, no curtains and as a national referral centre she is surrounded by the sickest patients in Uganda where daily, patients will die around her. Her allergies continue to worsen in hospital and her lungs simply will not survive a severe hospital-borne infection. However, with your generous help we can purchase Fiona a home oxygen concentrator ($1750 CDN) so Fiona can finally get home. Although the family has assured me if we get Fiona home they will find the means to cover the ~$15-20 CDN dollars each month for the electricity, we are going to surprise the family by pre-paying their electricity for 1 year ($250 CDN) so they can continue focusing on paying/saving for the children’s education. Like anyone with a terminal illness, Fiona has limited time left on this earth, but she deserves to spend that time at home with her beautiful kids by her side. Fiona misses bedtime cuddles, storytelling and singing to Myles and Micah. She tells me that her biggest fear, more than dying, is that Micah may never remember her, and she doesn’t want to miss any more time with him. With your help, she will be home next Wednesday as I have arranged for the kids and family to surprise her at the hospital to finally take her home! Fiona never lost hope, trusted god and believes the world is filled with good people doing good things and she asked me to please pass on a sincere thank you. Andrew Jeklin **Update - Wow! Blown away by the generous support and wanted to give a quick update on what we are doing with the extra funds. All money over our target is going towards the education of Fiona's beautiful kids. At current, Fiona is struggling to keep Myles in school each term and I am in discussion with the school to cover the costs, with ur generous support, the cost for not only the next few terms, next few years! So well done!
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