Hats Off For Lorna Irungu

It’s hats off for one Lorna Irungu who must be the bravest girl on Kenyan soil. In a story she gave to the new look Drum East Africa, Lorna says that she believes in the possibility of only good things happening to her.

These are very brave words coming from a young woman who has had to grapple life threatening ailments for over ten years. Just this year in January she was admitted in hospital suffering from tuberculosis of the spine. I watched her on TV some time back explaining what she has to go through in terms of treatment. This left two of her vertebrae badly damaged. She spent much of January in a medically induced coma. Treatment of the TB left her kidneys and liver badly damaged and she now has to undergo dialysis treatment twice a week. To this end she has a permanent catheter on the upper right side of her chest onto which the dialysis machines are hooked when she goes for her sessions. And yet despite all this, Lorna has bounced back much to the surprise of some of the doctors who were treating her.

When we speak of her kidneys note that she has had two kidney transplants already, one in 1998 and another in 2001. Much earlier she was diagnosed with Lupus, which according to Wikipedia is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s cells and tissue resulting in inflammation and tissue damage. It can affect any part of the body but most often harms the heart, joints, skin, lungs, blood vessels, liver, kidneys and nervous system. It seems in Lorna’s case it affected her kidneys.

Health issues aside, last year Lorna suffered another blow when her father died of HIV complications as she discloses here. Just how much can one girl take? And yet Lorna seems to be always charming and full of cheer. Quite a strong girl this one.

Before I read Lorna Irungu’s story I think I had started getting a little bit too comfortable. I had spent the afternoon in the office whining about silly stuff. The afternoon is dragging too long, the tea is not sweet enough, emails are not going through, some files are missing, oh it’s too hot………. and on and on. Then I bought the magazine on my way home and I thought you know what? We need to be grateful for everything we have.

Despite all this the cheerful girl still does not know how to be sad. Lorna’s words in verbatim, “you can decide to be a crier or a fighter, a person who rejoices. I do not know how to be sad.” Thank you Lorna for being so inspiring.

Parts of this story, ok most of this story is adopted from the new look Drum.

On a lighter note Lorna Irungu I think has a striking resemblance to equally beautiful celebrity Star Jones.