Sherefa needs help to fight kidney failure

Sherefa Blake-Rose was diagnosed with kidney failure last February. After a series of vomiting, she said she collapsed and had to be rushed to the University Hospital of the West Indies.

But even before she was taken to the hospital, she saw the signs that something was wrong with her.

"Every minute mi did affi guh to di toilet and mi nuh know wah happen to mi," said Blake-Rose, who was first diagnosed with pneumonia.

She recalled that the pain, which was being felt in her abdomen and her back, was so intense she couldn't sleep at nights.

"Mi did affi guh doctor because mi neva know wah happen to mi. When I reach hospital mi belly start to swell and dem put mi on the dialysis machine," she told THE STAR.

Since being diagnosed, Blake-Rose says she has found it difficult to pay for her treatments. In order to come up with the funds she needs, Blake-Rose says some days she has to go without food.

"Sometime mi don't have nothing to eat because I have to find di money to dialyse," she explained.

The resident of Mall Road in Kingston told THE STAR that she has to pays $9,300 per session for dialysis treatment, which has to be done twice per week.

A grant of $150,000 she received in January from the Ministry of Health helped to alleviate some of the pains of paying for her treatments. With the money paid directly to the St Josephs Hospital, where she does her treatments, Blake-Rose says she sometimes does dialysis once per week in order for the money to stretch.

"You cannot owe them, anybody weh guh there, dem say yuh affi guh a di cashier and pay first and then carry the receipt fi guh pon di

dialysis machine," she told THE STAR.

Sometimes, she says, she takes a risk by missing her first treatment of the week, but she says there are some side effects.

"If I don't guh, mi face start disfigure. If yu see how mi look, yuh start run from mi," she told THE STAR.

Now, with those funds exhausted, Blake-Rose, who used to work at a catering company, is pleading for donations to cover her medical bills.

"Mi just need the help, because mi not working and mi can't maintain mi self," she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.

She said she has sought out other facilities where dialysis is cheaper or is done for free, but was told that those facilities had reached the capacity of the patients that they can treat.

TO ASSIST Sherefa Blake Rose you may contact her, at 876-367-1666.