Comedian and actor Lawrence Gwako alias Kokoto Lijodi has come out to appeal to Kenyans to help him raise money to enable a bone marrow transplant for his 13-year-old son who is suffering from Sickle-cell Anaemia.
The former Vioja Mahakamani actor’s first child, Wesley, has been battling sickle cell anaemia for about 13 years.
“When the illness was starting, the child was crying a lot. If you look at the palms of his hands and feet, you would notice that he was swollen. I didn’t know what was going on. But he was crying a lot until the neighbors came to knock on my door. The pain that the child was feeling is what made him cry and he had no able to say where he was sick,” Kokoto said in an interview with Plug TV.
Kokoto revealed that his son’s illness was diagnosed when he was only 8 months old after undergoing many tests. He added that the child’s condition has exhausted him and his wife emotionally, psychologically and even deprived them of sleep as they spend a lot of time taking care of him.
“When we get home we are like guards. Sometimes I am on duty and sometimes my wife. Sometimes we just sit down and watch her because it is a pain that we cannot do anything about,” he said.
The Vioja Mahakamani actor noted that Wesley’s disease is hereditary and may have been inherited from his family or his wife’s side.
He revealed that his son is currently admitted to Kenyatta hospital for special treatment and pointed out that the doctors have given him advice on two ways to find a solution to the situation.
However, he has expressed his concern about the easy way that will not provide a complete solution and so he has chosen the second way which is to send his son to India for special treatment. Kokoto believes that once Wesley is treated in India he will be able to live a normal life despite carrying the disease.
“Where the child’s condition has reached, I was asking if we can donate enough to take him to India for treatment. If you do all the calculations, include the treatment, stay there for three months while we wait for him to recover, if he returns there will also be drugs he will need to take for about six months, the total amount comes to about Ksh2.5 million.”
