Fri | Mar 29, 2024

Clarendon mom pleads for assistance to get life back on track

Published:Saturday | October 15, 2022 | 12:06 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
Nickiesha Bygrave, a mother of two from Bucknor in Clarendon, is appealing for help to undergo surgery to repair a hernia, which has been causing her severe discomfort and has affected her ability to earn a living to feed her family.
Nickiesha Bygrave, a mother of two from Bucknor in Clarendon, is appealing for help to undergo surgery to repair a hernia, which has been causing her severe discomfort and has affected her ability to earn a living to feed her family.
Nickiesha Bygrave, a mother of two from Bucknor in Clarendon, shows the single-room board dwelling in which she lives with her family. Bygrave is appealing for help to undergo surgery to repair a hernia, which has been causing her severe discomfort and has
Nickiesha Bygrave, a mother of two from Bucknor in Clarendon, shows the single-room board dwelling in which she lives with her family. Bygrave is appealing for help to undergo surgery to repair a hernia, which has been causing her severe discomfort and has affected her ability to earn a living to feed her family.
Thirty-two-year-old Nickiesha Bygrave, who lives in Bucknor, Clarendon.
Thirty-two-year-old Nickiesha Bygrave, who lives in Bucknor, Clarendon.
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Thirty-two-year-old Nickiesha Bygrave of Bucknor, Clarendon, just wants one main thing to make her life complete: surgery to repair a hernia that has been a major disruptor in her life.

Unable to afford the fees to have the operation done, she has been enduring excruciating pain, made worse by the frequent jeers from people mocking her condition.

The mother of two girls, ages three and one, told The Gleaner that her problems began when he was released from the hospital after doing a second Caesarean section.

Four days after being discharged, Bygrave said that she started violently throwing up, so much so that she felt like the stitches had been pulled apart.

After returning to the doctor for an examination, she was told that the outside stitches seemed intact, so, hopefully, there would be nothing to worry about.

Bygrave, who previously did higglering, going to sections of the island to purchase ground produce and returning to sell in her community, said that with two mouths to feed, she resumed working a bit early.

“Sometimes I had to lift those bags to put in the vehicle, and then I did a lot of walking in the community to get sales,” she shared, surmising that activities aggravated a hernia – a gap in the muscular wall of the abdomen that allows the contents to protrude outward – and worsened her situation.

Battling obesity

Struggling with obesity since she was a child, Bygrave said that she has tried everything to regulate her weight, including going to the gym, without any success.

Now, the hernia has caused her abdomen to be “hanging down” and badly swollen.

Added to that, she must deal with the insensitivity of people who don’t understand her plight and who make fun of her whenever she goes on the road.

“Some of the times, I [fall into] depression because of my weight. Some persons are very inconsiderate; they mock me on the road. Some of the times, they would laugh at me and I would know that they are laughing at me,” she told The Gleaner, her voice cracking as the sob escaped.

Even taxi operators have refused to take her, but thankfully, there are some of the bus operators who are more accommodating.

Bygrave said that during the times when persons are unkind to her, she prays and reminds herself of what the scripture says – that she is “beautifully and wonderfully made”.

Still, Bygrave is grateful for the support system she has from some women in Bucknor, who look out for her and assist her whenever they can.

Stressing the urgency for the surgery, which she cannot afford, Bygrave said that the latest examination showed that her lungs were not functioning properly, her heart is swollen, and her other organs are also being affected as a result of the hernia.

“I am in pain every day, and I can no longer do my buy-and-sell to help take care of the children,” she said, making a pitch to Jamaicans to assist her to get an opportunity to resume her old lifestyle.

She is also longing for the swelling in her abdomen to go down.

With her not working, there is an added stress as she said her children’s father, who is a carpenter, only gets hired jobs occasionally, and sometimes when he is not working, they have to take items on credit from the community shop. There are days when there is nothing for them to eat, she added.

She also wants to work on a one-bedroom dwelling she had made the foundation for as the single-room board house in which she lives now lives causes her nightmares whenever it rains heavily.

“I live in a one-room board house, from my grandmother to my mother, to my days now that I inherit this house. We have always been flooding victims, so I have been trying to buy some little material and I start a foundation and I was hustling to feed my children and build a little room around the back, because each year, when it is flood time, I start to fret about my children,” she said.

cecelia.livingston@gleanerjm.com

How you can help

If you can assist Nickiesha Bygrave, contact her at 876-218-4598.