Sad end to Shelice’s story - Clarendon woman loses fight against crippling illness

When Shelice Campbell spoke to THE STAR last Tuesday, she was struggling to breathe. The 25-year-old, who having endured four years of illness, was seeking help to beat her condition and lead a normal life.

"I am really sick and I am not sure what is wrong with me," said Campbell, who doctors diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. "It has been really difficult because I am in a lot of pain, and I cannot do anything for myself."

The conversation with the young woman ended prematurely as she developed breathing issues and reached out to her, mother Juliet Johnson, for assistance.

Campbell's story, which bore the headline, 'Young mother needs help to beat crippling illness', was published last Thursday. However, she did not see it. Her mother said she passed at 5'o clock that afternoon.

"Wednesday she take down really bad. All her voice lock off suh mi had to run with her to the hospital. She bare up until Thursday and she dead minutes after 5 in the evening. She never get a chance to even read her story in the paper because she did take down bad," a distraught Johnson told THE STAR.

Though Campbell appeared in this newspaper seeking help, her story is deeper than it appears on the surface. She was a teenage mother, having given birth to a daughter at age 15. But she refused to be defined by teenage pregnancy. She continued er education at Garvey Maceo High School and secured eight Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and four Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) passes.

Campbell said she wanted to move on to a tertiary level institution, but being a single parent she knew she had to put dream of becoming a physiologist. However, illness struck in 2018, and after a long and painful battle, her chapter ended prematurely.

She leaves behind a 10-year-old daughter, who Johnson said has been crying non-stop.

"Mi never did a look fi dis," the shaken mother said.