Can you help with nurse Ruku’s on-going need?

Ruku

One of our nursing staff is a young woman called Ruku, who has worked at Lalgadh almost since she finished her nurse training in the late 1990s. Ruku worked with in-patients for some time and then joined the Community team to support the primary health aspect of the community work. This involved going out to remote and very poor villages, to assist with mother and child health care and other health issues that cropped up. Around 2008, Ruku developed breast cancer and was very ill for some time but recovered and seemed to be much better again, although she had to take anti-cancer drugs for 6 years. From 2013 to 2015, Ruku had the opportunity to train to become a fully qualified staff nurse and completed her training successfully, proudly rejoining the in-patient staff in late 2015. Then disaster struck again, and after having been well for some years Ruku relapsed and the cancer began to spread. After nearly 6 months of treatment in 2016, during which time it was not clear whether she would survive, the cancer was stabilized and Ruku eventually returned to work. However, she has to work in an area where the infection risk is low, and so she is back in the Community Department, working with the Self Care Trainees. Unfortunately, she has to continue taking expensive medicine for the forseeable future and pays for it herself. NLT Nepal staff allowances cover a small part of this cost but Ruku has to find about £170 a month which is a struggle as it represents almost all her salary. We have had some gifts toward this cost which will help for a while but if anyone reading this article felt to donate towards her continuing treatment, she would be enormously grateful, and it would give her some opportunity to live without the full, crushing weight of a vital expense that she cannot avoid.

Thank you