What were you doing when you were 12? Asserting yourself? On your first or second love letter? I was struggling to survive my second year of life as a boarding student a Federal Government Girls’ College. I was also getting aware of the changes my body was undergoing, and getting ready to enter my ‘teens’.
That’s as much similarity as I had with Okoghene John Ighiwotho, because it was at that age he was first diagnosed with diabetes Type 1 and 2. Type 1 diabetes develops when the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin. As a result the body is unable to produce insulin and this leads to increased blood glucose levels, which in turn can cause serious damage to all organ systems in the body. Type 2 diabetes develops when the body does not produce enough insulin to maintain a normal blood glucose level, or when the body is unable to effectively use the insulin that is being produced. Currently, it can only be managed/suppressed, there is no cure. His mother is diabetic as well, one of the risk factors for this disease. Medical personnel say it is possible for a person to live with diabetes for as long as ten years without any symptoms, especially when it is Type 2, one of the strains Oke suffers.
Oke.
March 24, 2006 will forever be a remarkable day in Oke’s mind, albeit for a negative reason. It was on this day his symptoms began to show in earnest, and he started developing complications as well.
For the past six years Oke has been in and out of hospitals, undergone countless tests and investigations, and even endured negligence at the hand of doctors. Thanks to diabetic foot ulceration, a manifestation of long-term or chronic diabetes, he’s down to the last three toes on his right foot; he’s out of toes on his left.
Unfortunately, the gangrene hasn’t and will not stop spreading, and he’s at a point where surgery to amputate the infected limbs is the only thing that will keep him alive. That surgery, his pre and post op care, accommodation and feeding (all in India) will cost an estimated 5million naira.
This is where we all come in, and I thank you for reading up to this paragraph. 5million naira is 5000 people giving 1000 naira, a thousand people giving 5000 naira, 100 people giving 50, 000 naira, and so on. Either way we do it, we cannot let Oke die. It’s that simple. We can, so let’s save him!
He lives in Lagos, can be reached on 08063255842 and his banking details are –
Acc name -Ighiwoto Okeoghene John 0012913007 (naira), 0113828240 (dollars), 0113828271 (pounds) – GTB.
Ighiwoto Okeoghene John 2054468076 (naira) – UBA.
*We’re working on a website for him that will allow Interswitch payments, will update this post with it as soon as it goes live.
Thank you.
P:S – The first of the related articles (below) is the best and most simplified information about diabetes I could find; the video is worth watching as well. The second is where I first saw Oke’s story, contains graphic photos so not recommended for the light-hearted. The third is an article published by Vanguard on the 12th of January this year, and the fourth, the first of articles by me for Oke.
Fairy Godsister's Blog 
It is so pathetic that one being is going through all this. We need to save a live and bring hope to someone that can make a different out of nothing. Let us all join our hands to save Oke’s life.
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