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Kenyans rally behind NTV host Janet Kanini as she battles cancer

October 12th, 2015 2 min read

Kenyans have rallied behind NTV host Janet Kanini days after she boldly revealed she had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.

A Facebook page ‘Janet Kanini Ikua Medical Fund’ has been set up to help her offset some of the bills being accrued in India where she is admitted for treatment.

A fundraiser on crowd funding website ‘You Caring’ has also been started with a target of Sh5 million ($50,000). So far the some Sh75,000 has been raised through the crowd funding website.

A M-Pesa paybill number 895790, account name Janet Kanini Ikua has also been opened.

Ms Ikua, a former NTV news anchor who now hosts a property show on the station, announced the initiatives on her Facebook account.

She said the efforts were jointly coordinated by herself and secondary school classmates.

“I want to confirm that they have started a legitimate Facebook page called Janet Kanini Ikua Medical Fund, organized a paybill number 895790 Account Janet Kanini Ikua, and shared an online payment youcaring.com website link that I’ve posted as follows http://bit.ly/1jjPu55,” she wrote.

Kenyans on Twitter are also using the hashtag ‪#‎IStandWithJanet to air their support for Ms Ikua.

She said: “I want to thank them and all others who’ve offered this kind of support – may you never lack. And once again I’m rendered speechless at your concern and caring….”

Ms Ikua revealed her condition last week in a lengthy Facebook post writing: “The latest medical reports say Lung cancer. Stage 4, meaning it has spread from the primary lung site into lymph nodes.”

She went on: “Doctors have called it ‘organized’ – yaani it’s fixed in the muscle with little chance of moving so I’m safe from that. We can focus on treating the cancer. It has taken me weeks to decide to publicly admit that this is the diagnosis. One reason is that it is not advised to give voice to sickness.”