From the very first day I saw Nwachukwu Ozioko aka Vast of Bracket in the music video of Yori- Yori , I completely fell in love with him and his voice but I felt really bad when it was disclosed that he had Lympoma (a rare type of blood cancer) It has been pretty well known that he battled with it for the most part of past year and has eventually beaten it.
After
receiving treatment Platinum Medical Centre, Wellington , London the other half
of the duo has finally returned to Nigeria and is set to pick up where he left
off.
Check
out the excerpt of his interview with VanguardNGR about his whole journey.
How did it happen?
I don’t know what to say, but first of all, I want to give
thanks to God. I was very sick. Before I went to the hospital, I attended a
couple of shows. I wondered how I was able to perform at the shows because I
was seriously ill. My partner, Obumneme Ali a.k.a Smash and I had series of
shows and in a situation where payment has been made, I had no option than to
grace the stage. We decided to round off our shows late last year in order to
enable me take care of my health in 2013. But unfortunately, up till January,
this year, we were still going for concerts. We even had to travel to Australia
to stage a concert.
Then, I was visiting one of the hospitals in Lagos, and that was
where I was diagnosed. They carried out all the medical examinations, and when
the results came out, the Haematologist advised me to seek for further
treatment abroad.
If you have travelled to America or any Schengen country within
two years, you can apply for a Priority Visa and we were qualified to do so. We
applied and within four days, the visa came out. We met a friend in the UK who
introduced us to his brother who is a Medical Doctor. He assisted us and we met
a Haematologist who advised that I should re-run all the tests again.
The only thing we didn’t do was the surgery which I did back
home before I was diagnosed of suffering from blood cancer. After everything,
they started with the treatment they called ‘Bone Marrow’. It wasn’t an easy
one, it was very difficult. I thought I would loose all the blood in my body
but thank God I survived it. After a week, I started having complications, I
had to return to the hospital to have blood transfusion after which I felt
better. We spent a lot of money. At a point, I was hopeless and was only
praying to God for His mercies.
After the second chemotherapy, I started exercising because the
doctor advised me to do regular exercise. However, it was after the third
chemotherapy that the pictures I took while in the hospital leaked. By then, I
was already bouncing back to life because I passed through the valley of the
shadow of death. After the fourth chemotherapy, we shot a video, ‘Temperature’
in London .
I didn’t even know I could do that. I initially thought the
cycle would be six but before the fifth chemotherapy, the doctor informed us
that it was going to be eight. I got confused at that point and even doubted
what they were doing. I thought they just wanted to milk me because it was
expensive. My manager, partner and Chief Executive Office however encouraged me
to complete the treatment.
I was only going to the hospital, then to the gymnasium and back
to the house. After the seventh chemo, I was told to do a Lumber Punch- they
would have to inject my spine. It was done after the fifth chemo and it was
very painful. I thought I would be paralysed. I was told the Lumber Punch was
necessary to prevent the disease from getting to the brain. At that point, our
account was almost in the red.
Luckily, a friend known as Ugonna came to London during my third
chemo and was moved when he heard that we had accommodation problem. He later
gave us some money to look for one. Ugonna was the only person that assisted me
financially apart from the prayers and encouragement of my fans and the media.
I did the Lumber Punch and lost a lot of blood.
Two days after, I went to get another chemo. When one undergoes
chemo, it kills both the good and the bad cells and flushes out all the blood
in your system. So, you have to be refreshing. Imagine losing so much blood
after the Lumber Punch and after the chemo. I was almost a dead person.My
colour overnight. I remembered what the doctor told me that cancer is not the
problem but the treatment.
After a week and a half, I started exercising, taking juice and
everything that would help build my blood again. I was finally cleared from the
hospital and I thank God for His mercies. A lot of people came to our house to
rejoice with us when we returned to the country during the week. I want to
thank them. The likes of P-Square, Jimmy Jatt, Dammy Krane, KCee, Chidinma,
Illbliss, JMartins and many others.
What kind of cancer did you have?
I had Lymphoma. It is a blood cancer. When I asked the doctor
what could the cancer of the blood, he said, nobody knows the cause for now.
According to him, it’s like a situation where a dark complexion couple making a
baby and the baby turns out to be an albino and if you are asked to explain
why, you cannot tell.
I must say that when I was hospitalised, my partner was doing a
good job. He would call the producer and they would make a beat and send it to
me. He even made the chorus. I picked one of the songs when I came back and hit
the studio. We did one of the tracks, it was fantastic. We did another song and
it was good as well, all within two days.
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