Yemisi Ilo, a creative consultant and project manager, says she's been
living with Multiple Sclerosis for nearly 10 years and feels that
Zara Gretti’s situation shouldn’t have deteriorated to the point of
death. She feels ignorance and not MS killed the singer, who passed away
on Friday March 28th about a year after making her illness public. Read
what Yemisi (pictured right) wrote below...
I also have MS and I am
currently in Singapore – where by His grace I will finally halt the
progression and hopefully and prayerfully reverse some if not all
disability.
I spoke to Zara on Tuesday. She said she was being given ‘Agbo’ to drink
by her family and that it was killing her. Those were her exact words. I
told her to not drink it. With an already compromised immune system –
Agbo is bullshit. It is poison. MS is not malaria.
I gave Zara clear details of exactly what she needed to do to try to get
well. It isn’t easy at all - I should know but unfortunately for her,
she was surrounded by very ignorant people at the end who felt that they
knew best.
I first heard of Zara when I read about her on Linda Ikeji‘s blog a year
ago. I got in touch with her immediately and started a Skype
friendship. I was in London and she was in the States (US). We spoke
regularly.
When I went back to Lagos, we would WhatsApp and I would call
her. When she came to Nigeria in October last year, I went to see her
and she was surprised that she could move better than me! I organized
the Battabox interview (which we did at my parents house). She said she
didn’t want to live with her mum in the States – yet she had no one to
look after her there apart from her mum. She needed someone. She even
wanted to come and stay with me, but I am married with small children
and my own MS issues were already enough for one house.
I am so pissed off, so angry, so fucking sad, teary and frustrated. If I
had been in Nigeria, I would have gone to pick her up on Tuesday when I
spoke to her. She was so desperate to leave Ogba. She said she had a
return ticket to America and would try to leave ASAP. I gave her my
neurologist’s number so she could get some steroids to help her get over
the horrible relapse she was having. Also to get her to explain the
condition to Zara’s family so they would realize that this was not an
‘Agbo’ matter.
I have had MS for nearly 10 years. My walking has deteriorated and I am
currently alternating between a walker and a wheelchair. Zara was
worried that she wouldn’t get married and have kids – I told her that I
had 4 kids and was happily married and continued to work and that there
was hope.
I have always been vocal about MS and even appeared on a ‘Moments with
Mo’ episode talking about it. There are many Nigerians with MS – I know a
few but they want to keep quiet. Their families are embarrassed. Why? I
don’t know? It can happen to anyone at any time.
Granted, I am extremely fortunate to have the strength of character and a
loving and supportive and enlightened family to deal with this HORRIBLE
condition that has led to this opportunity for me to undergo
Hemapioetic Stem Cell Transplant (HSCT) – Google it. It has taken
donations from over 100 people to do this. It costs over $150k
(N24,727,501). I told Zara that since she was a US citizen, she could
get on a trial at the University of Chicago under Dr. Burt for free.
I just want people to know that MS didn’t kill Zara – ignorance did. As
well as our fatalistic attitude in Nigeria where everyone prays and no
one takes action.
Thanks
