Nigeria’s women youth national team, Falconets’ former goalkeeper, Bidemi Aluko has come out with allegations that she has been abandoned by colleagues, officials, administrators, corporate bodies, fans and the general public due to her prolonged battles with breast cancer, megasportsarena.com gathered.
Although she acknowledged that she got an iota of support in the early days of the affliction, Aluko disclosed that things have become really tough for her during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and she has been left to carry her cross by herself.
She pointed out that the ongoing war against COVID-19 has apparently caught the attention of everyone, health workers especially, such that she is unable to have chemotherapy that helps her in the task of overcoming the ailment, as all hospitals currently focus on treating people that have been infected by coronavirus and how to prevent the highly-contagious respiratory disease from spreading further.
She was put on a year-long session of chemotherapy and possible surgery after she was officially diagnosed of breast cancer in January 2019, and she had already gone for 10 sessions before the outbreak of coronavirus, but Aluko has now disclosed that the hospital in Ibadan where she had been receiving the treatment has told non-COVID-19 patients to stay away.
Consequently, the 27-year-old shot-stopper had to seek medical attention at a private hospital outside Ibadan but that option was also blocked last month when she ran out of funds and the embattled lass, who was first diagnosed with the debilitating setback in April 2017, is now in dire straits.
In July last year, Aluko’s plight drew sympathy from a politician, Ibrahim Olarenwaju, who then sponsored a bill on the floor of the national assembly, urging the Ministry of Youth and Sport Development to provide comprehensive coverage for all Nigerian footballers under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Olarenwaju said the bill has made some progress and is pending before the House Committee on Legislative Compliance, but that process is not coming quick enough for Aluko, who could not get a single cap with the senior squad, Super Falcons, despite being included in several lists for the Falconets, but she had to bow out when the disease returned in January 2019.
Now that her career is over due to the ailment, Aluko has been battling on without her former source of regular remuneration and match bonuses, such that she cannot afford treatment and her husband, who has been supporting her financially, is now unemployed due to the impact of coronavirus on his job.
Although Aluko received a financial lift from Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) for part of her treatment last year, the former Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt keeper is still in need of more funds to continue receiving mastectomy and further treatment, even as she lamented how she has spent about $1,305 for each of the 10 doses she needed to ameliorate the condition last year and she had to sell everything she owned in order to pay for medical attention.
Aluko told BBC Sport Africa: “I do not have the money to pay for the subsequent drugs. My husband lost his job as a result of the financial constraint impacted by coronavirus. The Nigerian Football Federation has really done a lot for me by providing the initial funds for my treatment.
“Although I have exhausted my funds, I do not want to be a burden on the Federation. I (can’t) go to the clinic because of my health status. They are attending to people whose cases they deem as critical. We were told that people with existing health issues should stay out of the clinic.”
