NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Six cancer patients from Grand Bahama were flown to Nassau for treatment yesterday.
The Ministry of Health provided a charter service for those patients to have their chemotherapy and other treatments done at the Oncology Centre.
Grand Bahama native Portia Ebrahim was among those to take the flight into New Providence yesterday.
Ebrahim has taken a flight into New Providence to undergo treatment at least once a month for nearly a year since she was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer.
She had a bilateral mastectomy in May last year, and completed her last round of chemotherapy on January 21.
Ebrahim told Eyewitness News that she has missed two treatments thus far, and other patients have also missed at least two treatments.
She stressed the importance of people fighting cancer being able to get their treatments on time.
“To be in a position where you would miss one treatment is too much, it’s a whole lot…your system is immensely compromised,” she said.
Asked about her future treatments, she said: “I’m not 100 percent sure even to this point, what it is they plan on doing our next set of treatments is in 21 days or three weeks, so I suppose that we will be back to agitating for that treatment.”
She noted however that she is hoping the Ministry of Health sees the importance for cancer patients having their treatments done and make provisions so that it can be accessible.
“I would really like if there is a way to have the treatments done in Freeport, seeing as Nassau has such a high rate of COVID-19 cases,” Ebrahim added.
“I know for me, it’s causing an anxiety for me.”
All of the patients will be having their treatments on Friday, and they are expected to return to Grand Bahama on Saturday or Sunday, she said.
