BRAVELY BEATS BEAUTY AND FAME : AJUMA NASENYA

For most Kenyans Ajuma is one hot,famous super model but for many cancer patients, she is one brave hero who has over looked her beauty and fame to give hope to many cancer patients who are fighting the same battle as her. I am always humbled to see such famous people take into their hands the duty to be a helping hand to others no matter what odds they might face.Please be inspired by Ajuma's battle and a motivation victory to others. (Please read below) Sick, puffing and exhausted: These are not adjectives Nairobians would associate with a beauty queen, whose world should ordinarily be filled with glamour. Yet this is the description of Lillian Odongo, a Miss Kenya 2000 finalist. Lillian is one of Kenya’s beauty queens battling with various forms of cancer. And theirs is a gruelling regime of chemotherapy, radiation and mastectomy. The model recently flew out to Milan, Italy, for medical care of her nagging cancer of the colon. Her case is inspiring Kenya’s beauty queens to come out in leading an awareness campaign against cancer. Some for those who have joined the war against teh disease include top model Ajuma Nasenyana, who is mobilising fellow models to raise funds for Lilian, whose medical expenses are in millions of shillings. The battle went a notch higher this month with the start of the Step-by-Step Cancer Campaign, a beauty queen-led initiative that aims at creating awareness and forcing the government to act on the killer disease. Miss Kenyatta University Eunice Kamau, who is also the reigning Miss University Kenya, is the face of the Step-by-Step campaign. Eunice says she is inspired to lead the cancer awareness campaign, especially after the disease affected a member of her family. “Last year I lost my grandfather to cancer,” the sassy queen told The Nairobian. “I have visited children suffering from cancer and even my fellow models are victims of this troubling disease. Cancer is affecting everyone and we have to act.” According to the Ministry of Health, cancer is the third of cause of death after infectious and cardiovascular diseases. It causes an estimated seven per cent of deaths in Kenya — meaning that more than 20,000 people die from the disease every year. Other notable beauty queens, who have overcome cancer include the 2002 Miss Tourism Vivian Maina and M-net’s Face of Africa model Bidanya Barasa. Bidanya won the 1999 Kenyan title and went on to represent the region as a finalist in the main competition. Bidanya, who now works in Seychelles, had suffered from colon cancer while Vivian was suffering from breast cancer and later on cancer of the colon.