I can’t wait to move in! - Cancer-stricken mother given the key to her new home

When Marvette Johnson visited THE STAR offices in January, she cried while stating that her only wish was to acquire a piece of land so she could benefit from a Food For the Poor (FFP) house.

But last Thursday, the mother of two, who has been battling recurring breast cancer, cried tears of joy as she was presented with the keys to her new home.

She was one of two persons gifted with new homes by the National Baking Company Foundation in partnership with FFP and the Housing Agency of Jamaica in Portmore Villas, St Catherine.

"I really can't explain to people the joy that I have been feeling right now. I just can't wait to move in. All I wanted was to get a piece of land and a house on it to move in and everything would be so well and I got just that. I have a roof over my children's heads and that means the world to me," she said.

Johnson said she was in extreme pain last Thursday at the handover event, but that agony was masked by the joy she also felt.

"I had done chemotherapy on the Monday so I was in a lot of pain. I am no use of myself. At a point in time the pain was so bad that I wanted to sit down so much but I didn't want it to seem like I was not appreciative of what was happening. I would like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart who has offered their assistance and to THE STAR for highlighting my story when there was no way out," she said. Johnson was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010.

Severe lymphedema and chemotherapy treatments have rendered her unable to work and as a result, she was unable to pay her rent.

She said that the mother of one of her daughters' friends opened her home to her and her two children in Greater Portmore, St Catherine. She was, however, asked to vacate the premises.

She was then offered a room in an unfinished home in St Andrew. But she was later asked to leave by the owner.

Very appreciative

Johnson has since been staying with a family in Clarendon who she said has been treating her and her children like blood relatives. But while very appreciative of the hospitality, she longed for a permanent home for her children.

"I am so happy. I am yet to move in the new home because there is no water or electricity but I am so happy. Only God knows the joy I am feeling," she said.

She, however, stated that she continues to fight an agonising battle with her illness and prays that she will be doing a victory dance in the near future.

"It has been a fight honestly to God. I would want to keep going but things are not going there because the cancer is at stage four. I am not giving up though. I have been doing chemo therapy for little over two years and I will continue to fight. I know the doctors are running out of treatment options for me but I have faith that God will turn things around for me because my children still need me," Johnson said.