Cost of Falsehood

Gloria : The four large holes in my chest where the lumps were removed, they were not stitched; they were left open, so I have these four large holes in my chest.

Tobi: The thing is that instead of people to now actually seek medical help, like, go for chemo and radiotherapy, they would rather go for herbs and leaves herbs and leaves.

Jawesola: When we want to treat it, we call it out. even the person affected would see it. After then any medications prescribed would work.

Narrator: Several cancer patients have been sold hopes like this. and when the cost of orthodox treatments becomes too much to bear, they are left with no option but to buy into these cheap, accessible, but medically unfounded treatments.

This is Kara House, and this report is the Cost of falsehood brought to you by Sunmibola Quadri.

Narrator: Mangoes, Oranges, Pineapples… They are healthy and rich in vitamins and minerals. However, according to some set of traditional practitioners, … they claim that cancer can be cured with pineapples, mangoes, and other kinds of fruits, potions, herbs, and leaves.

Cancer is notorious and can develop in any organ or tissue of the body when abnormal cells grow uncontrollably. The deadly disease keeps ravaging the lives of Nigerians.

Narrator:On Facebook, Sunmibola found a group with over a hundred thousand members which claims that certain leaves and fruits can cure cancer. These claims are popular on WhatsApp groups.

While it is impossible to know how many people have come in contact with these claims on WhatsApp, such messages cause serious harm to cancer patients… In extreme cases, it kills them.

Gloria : I was touching one day, and I felt something hard by the side of my breast, and that was how the journey started.

Narrator:Gloria found out she had cancer when she found a lump in her breast.

Gloria: So i had to do a breast scan, a mammogram, and finally, a biopsy. In March 2017, after all those tests, it was discovered the lump I found in my breast was malignant that was how the journey started.

Narrator:She was left with no choice but to undergo mastectomy…., a surgical operation to remove a breast. In Gloria’s case, her left breast.

Gloria: The first symptom I noticed was a lump in my breast in 2016; prior to that, I didn’t know about breast self-exams… I didn’t check my breasts every month as women are advised to do.

Narrator: After her mastectomy, Gloria was advised to do chemo and radiotherapy. However,Gloria did not want to proceed with either until the cancer returned 18 months later to the exact spot where her left breast once was.

[Reporter and Gloria]

Gloria: In 2022, after 5 years of my diagnosis, I had a relapse, and the cancer spread to my leg… and I’m managing that now

Reporter: sorry to hear that

Gloria: Thank you

Reporter:It’s a tough battle.

Gloria: Yeah… it is

Reporter: Did you at any point try herbal treatments?

Gloria: Yes… all cancer… if I say all, it might be too much generalization, but a lot of cancer patients look out for other options

Narrator:One of the reasons Gloria, her aunt, and others who have fallen victim believe the falsehood is because the supposed treatments are accessible and very cheap.

Narrator:Cancer treatments are expensive. Chemotherapy costs between N600,000 to N1.5 million per session. cancer drugs also cost as much as N300,000 per month.

Gloria: because of the toxicity of cancer treatments, the side effects are massive, some of them last a long time, some of the treatments can trigger other cancers, and then some of them are very expensive. So, people keep looking for cheaper alternatives without side effects. The fear of recurrence also… it’s not a guarantee that I won’t die from cancer. So they want to look for other options that would elongate their lives.

Shifaa MV: Yes, drinking hot water and pineapple cures cancer. Drinking hot water alone is good for the body. When someone wakes up, they should drink warm water rather than drinking room temperature water. Cancer is an infection, and this cures all kinds of infections.

Narrator: Shifaa Multiventures was the first herb seller Sunmibola visited. She specialises in treating patients and selling herbs and roots.

Shifau MV: That’s why if an individual can’t afford pineapple itself, we advise them to get the peels from pineapple hawkers and rinse it.

Dr Tobi: Pineapple, it’s rich in vitamin A.

Narrator: Sunmibola met with Dr Oluwatobiloba Oyekanmi. She is a medical officer at the Forward Operating Base Sickbay Ibaka in Akwa Ibom.

It is very good for sight… so it is good for vision. It is also a good source of fibre, it helps with indigestion.

Narrator: So, where does the link between pineapple and cancer come in?

Dr. Tobi: There is a particular enzyme in pineapple that is called bromelain… now it helps to heal the skin and tissue basically. So it gives you a clear skin because of this bromelain content that is in the pineapple.

And because of this many people now tend to think or refer to this enzyme in the pineapple as a cancer-curing enzyme right? That’s not true, I mean no… we can’t just say because of a particular content then that can cure cancer. No we can’t just say that.

Dr Tobi: Maybe bromelain in itself has an effect, but there’s no clear-cut evidence yet, and I mean in medicine before you can say and certify that this is good, it has to go through several stages, it had to go through a clinical trial.

Narrator:Sunmibola was not quite satisfied with the responses she received from Shifa Multiventures, the first practitioner of alternative medicine I met. So she went to a nearby herbalist who also claims to cure cancer.

What could be their thinking for abandoning scientific methods for concoctions and herbs?

[Reporter and Jawesola]

Jawesola: Most of them go to the hospital prior to coming because that’s the normal thing to do.

When we want to treat it, we call it out… It doesn’t manifest immediately. If it’s breast cancer, in some cases, the flesh would have been amputated, but cancer is in the blood.

Narrator: That is Kehinde Jawesola. She is an expert in treating a range of ailments as a practitioner of alternative medicine.

Narrator: Using roots and herbs is not the only tool in Jawesola’s medical kit. There are some mystic techniques involved as well.

Jawesola: The cancer insects would be falling, and even the affected individual would see it. Then, any medicine prescribed would work, and they’d be all right.

Narrator: But Gloria was not alright.

Gloria: Before I started Chemotherapy, I went to Jos. My second surgery was done in a herbal home by unqualified people (laughs) now it sounds funny, but I just wanted to stay alive, and I didn’t care who was tearing my body… I went and had four lumps removed from my chest. that was my second surgery, and then I was placed on some herbal medications.

Gloria: they were roots, they were pounded, then there was red oil, and there was original honey, you know, things (cuts) unlike the hospitals, the four holes in my chest where the lumps were removed, they were not stitched, they were left open so I have four large holes in my chest so I had to clean them, put honey, put red oil, the herbs and drink some of the herbs that I was told would cure the cancer for life.

Narrator :Gloria could have stayed in the camp at Jos, a city in North Central Nigeria. But her aunt, the person who took her there, died…

Gloria: She had cancer as well, that’s my mum’s twin sister, and when she died, it was like an eye-opener for me. I realized I wasn’t doing the right thing.

[Reporter and Jawesola]

Reporter:After treatments, do they still come back for after-care?

Jawesola: Cancer doesn’t get treated entirely in a day or two… It is God that heals. If the patient is with me, I watch them every day, but if it’s an out-patient I tell them to come every day, then I ask them to start coming in weekly or bi-weekly till I discharge them… then I ask them to go for a scan to check if there are still traces of the infection.

Narrator: Jawesola did not explain what science goes into watching her patients. But Gloria says there is no scientific method to how the herbalists that treated her operated. Gloria: These treatments were not measured, you know, nobody checked your stage of cancer before giving you the herbs, nobody checked your age, your history, there was so much they were not doing that was done in the hospital, and I realized it was not a good place for me to be in and I went back to the hospital.

Narrator: there are three reasons why cancer patients seek traditional methods. First, cancer treatment is expensive for Nigerians. Second, when they can afford it, the side effects are hurtful. Third, orthodox healthcare does not guarantee full recovery. Under this ground, any whisper can take root, even the claim of cancer cells falling out of a patient’s blood “like insects.”

Gloria: The place is a camp, there are so many people there some ran away from the hospital. Honestly, that was not the last time I tried herbal remedies, I have tried so many things after that… (laughs) these, are herbs, leaves, and trees. Some of them are dry, and they’d ask you to drink it like tea, and it would burn the tumours.

Narrator: Only 3% of Nigerians are covered by health insurance. Most insurance offerings in the country do not cover the entire duration of chronic ailments like cancer. So, how do we stop people from patronising quack herbalists?

Dr Tobi:We just need to create more awareness, the same way we found out that people are saying these on social media. We can go out and start debunking these things on that same social media. We can also create health talks in our communities.

Gloria: I want to believe that there might be truth to some of those claims… more research needs to be done, but at this moment, it is not the best for anybody to do, it is a gamble with your life.

You have just listened to ‘Cost of Falsehood’, Kara House’s Original Documentary. The story was reported and produced by Sunmibola Quadri. Sound mixing was done by Daniel Akinbusuyi. It was edited by Tolu Olasoji and Banjo Damilola. The voice is Nabila Usman.