The darling of the nation, Carol Atuhirwe has passed away in an Indian hospital where she was undergoing cancer treatment.
The country fell in love with Atuhirwe early last year, when it was revealed that she was suffering from cancer, but always wore an infectious smile despite the excrutiating pain. Hundreds gathered for car-wash fundraisers accross the country to raise $80,000 needed to take care of her medical bills at a hospital in Cleverland USA where she was scheduled for an operation.
The money collected was in excess of what she needed by Shs50m and she even won more hearts when she donated the surplus to the cancer ward in Mulago.
But then there was more sad news as the doctors in Cleverland advised that she was in such a delicate condition to travel and advised against it. A second opinion was sought and she was booked into an Indian hospital where she has been undergoing treatment.
“Our Atuhirwe Carol has finally gone to be with the Lord. Thanks all Ye for the fight. Details will be communicated later,” Muhereza Kyamutetera, a publicist who led the fundraising campaign to foot her medical bills broke the news last evening.
Atuhirwe who was born on April 9, 1986 was 31 years old at the time of her passing.
By the time the country knew her, Carol had lost her voice, but she always communicated through her Facebook page and blog, expressing her gratitude for the love from strangers and also sharing how she was battling the disease.
Carol also became the poster child for Uganda’s ailing health system as it was discovered that Mulago Hospital’s cancer machine for patients who needed radiotherapy had long broken down, leading to public uproar.
On her blog, Atuhirwe revealed that she was a second year student at Uganda Christian University Mukono when she started getting signs, which she didn’t take serious at first.
“It was in the year 2011; I was just in my second year, last semester at campus when I started coughing small amounts of blood. I didn’t take things seriously until third year when I started losing my voice. I thought it was like any other loss of voice,” she wrote.
She took common drugs, thinking it was a simpole matter, but continued to lose her speech functions by the day. Being in a school environment, fellow students even made fun of her.
It was not until she finished her third year that a visit to Mulago Hospital revealed the worst – that she had throat cancer. She started receiving treatment until she was referred abroad, but she couldn’t handle the humongous bill, hence recording a video, seeking public help that was posted on Facebook.
It was that video that thrust her into the public eye and her smile in the reality of pain won hearts. In fact people started referring to her as “our Carol”. There were lots of prayers on top of the money several individuals donated.
In India, she occasionally kept posting her progress and with her smile, people thought she was getting better, forgetting that the smiling was in her DNA and no amount of pain could take it away.
For the last several months, the post on her Facebook page have been limited to about one a month, and not in her usual positive tone …. “When I was coming to India I had alot of hope, I felt loved. But now I feel like my hope is lashing out every day. GOD please restore my hope,” she posted in February.
“Sometimes I feel like closing my eyes and shutting all my emotions away,” she posted on May 10, leading to people to fear the worst.
She didn’t post again until the sad news of her death was announced.
Rest in Peace, Carol Atuhirwe.