Ailing woman wants to see PM Holness in person

Saidian Townsend, a resident of Tower Hill, a community in the West Central St Andrew constituency, said that she has been trying to get the attention of her political representative and Prime Minister Andrew Holness as she is in dire need of assistance.

"I am a voter of the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) ever since I know myself and in fact, during the last general election, I was very sick and couldn't walk, and is wheelchair I was in when I went to vote," she recalled.

"I have sought help before but I never get to Mr Holness. In 2019, I took sick and got a brain tumour and did three brain surgeries. My bone plate was removed and replaced with plastic so I can't use my left hand. I want to see Mr Holness in person please," she said.

Prior the tumour, Townsend related that she nearly lost her life in a motor vehicle accident, which left her in a coma. She said that she had to undergo therapy to walk again.

Currently, Townsend is jobless and doctors believe that she will not be able to get meaningful employment because of the trauma her body has experienced. She still cannot fully use her left arm, but is optimistic that one day she will be able to fully finance herself and her now 19-year-old daughter.

"I need help to get therapy, housing and financially. I don't know which door I don't go through to reach Mr Holness. I need a room for me and my daughter. I live in a family house and is four of us in one room," she said.

Townsend further shared that she was never one to look for handouts, as she was independent before her illness.

"Before I took sick I owned a bar on Bay Farm Road and I used to do cooking. I was independent, enuh. I am a single mother so in 2019, I went to Trinidad to get work and that's where I got sick. Right now is my family help me with food and other basic things and sometimes when I beg people they will give me," Townsend said.

"I am just pleading with Mr Andrew Holness to personally see me," she said.