HOPE for cancer patients

Hope springs eternal, and that’s what happened to 80-year-old Llauna Gordon Humphries, who battled breast cancer and is now giving hope to those who are dealing with it or have families going through it.

  • O.P.E. (Hold On Pain Ends) came out of her own fight to look to the future with confidence after being told by her doctors that there was no hope for her.

Mrs. Humphries, who had two surgeries for breast cancer, believed in God that her situation would turn around, even when the doctors didn’t believe this.

During the height of COVID-19, she found that she had to be encouraging many persons who called her seeking an encouraging word as they tried to navigate the period.

“Persons were forced to stay in, and that is when I got so many requests for help; persons were depressed, were suicidal. Persons who thought of taking the lives of their children and then themselves, people who were thinking of just running away, people who were going to leave their spouses. It was just a tsunami coming in. It was almost a daily thing; I was on the phone almost 24/7,” she reminisced.

According to Mrs. Humphries, COVID-19 measures eased, but the desperate phone calls and the need for advise did not follow suit. She got calls from different areas in Montego Bay, other parishes, and even from overseas.

Those calls got her thinking that she had to do something that would give hope, and so she reached out to the priest at her church to use a small room, and he gave her his blessings. She made the space ‘comfy’ and relaxing and put an advertisement in the newspaper. The initiative was then officially birthed.

Commenting on HOPE, she said the group provides support to not just those battling breast cancer, but all types and also to their relatives, giving them physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological support.

“They are encouraged to hope and to face their illness knowing they are not alone and will be in a better state of mind and healthier in body through a change in their diet to deal with the disease,” she explained.

Mrs. Humphries, who is a retired nurse, said from age five she knew this was what she wanted to do; she also had a deep interest in missionary work.

She got the chance as a member of St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Montpelier, St. James. She migrated in 1962 and lived in England for a while, still carrying out the mission.

In England, she was achieving the career and academic goals she set for herself, even being promoted to positions others then thought impossible for a black person.

One memorable moment for her was receiving the opportunity to care for the patient who received the first open heart surgery performed in England.

“My long-held dream of undertaking missionary work further afield was also still very much alive. But of course, there were bottlenecks along the way; chief of these were concerns about my health,” she informed as she stated that it was the beginning of her long journey of sickness.

At 24 years old, with prospects of achieving her dreams, “the nightmare of her life” and “years in Arabia,” as she termed it, began.

For one and a half years she was in and out of the hospital with a mysterious illness that left her paralysed and blind, but her spirit was intact as she shared that at night Jesus gave her songs of comfort.

“Initially, doctors could not diagnose my seeming mysterious illness. They chose instead to disbelieve that I was ill and even sent me to a psychiatrist,” she recounted.

She was eventually discharged from the hospital with a steel brace and a messed-up back, leaving her with her right leg three inches shorter than her left.

“I was afraid to face the world, to drive on public transport, and was basically homebound, relying on the assistance of friends. I was told too that I would have to live on meds and be in the steel brace for the rest of my life. But this was not what God told me,” she related.

She was later diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a condition in which the body’s immune system attacks the muscles. With this being a rare condition, not much was known about it. Mrs. Humphries condition forced her to rethink her plans of doing nursing/missionary work in India. She returned home to Jamaica, partly on the advice of her specialist.

Confirmation came through God’s spirit talking to her. 

“I clearly recall God telling me one night, ‘You are going to work for me, but not over there; you are going back home.'” I struggled for days, and then I said, ‘Yes, Lord, I will do as You say’. I obeyed God’s calling and decided to just trust Him. He had promised me that I would live and not die, because He had use of me,” she informed.

The nurse battled more illnesses, but they are now the catalyst for the impact she is making on others going through their emotional distress.

Commenting on HOPE’s impact, Mrs. Humphries said she has found the venture “extremely fulfilling and rewarding.”

At 80, there is no slowing down for her as she remains committed to HOPE and there is still a lot to do, as she said during her interactions she realised that some persons are not taught the exercises necessary after a mastectomy. She said there are so many times she received calls and realised it’s not done, so she sends them fliers.

“Sometimes the arm has started swelling already and we have to encourage and keep checking on the person. The other matter is the cost of the ports that are needed to be put in for the chemotherapy. Some persons cannot afford them. Some are going without proper food to save to buy one. Something needs to be done so that these items can be brought in and sold to persons at a lower cost,” she urged.

Seeing persons who had given up and were depressed, now having renewed hope and even encouraging others, is more than joy for her.

Looking ahead, Mrs. Humphries is desirous of expanding the reach of her programme, but given some of the limitations she has encountered, she believes an opportunity for publicity could help to reduce some of these limitations, while at the same time helping to educate the Jamaican public about a little known disease such as myasthenia gravis.

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