Lea is a 46-year-old small-scale businesswoman from Malawi. She has two children aged 15 and 10. Lea sells tomatoes, while her husband is a primary school teacher.
Seven years ago, Lea began to experience troubling symptoms, including breathlessness during sleep, walking, and climbing stairs, and was unable to carry items on her head. She was diagnosed with a goiter, an enlargement of the thyroid gland. The thyroid is the gland located in front of your neck and produces thyroid hormones. These hormones are responsible for functions such as metabolism, growth, and other bodily functions.
This January, things worsened when Lea started experiencing frequent choking after eating. She needs surgery to prevent her symptoms from getting worse.
Our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare, is helping Lea receive treatment. She is scheduled to undergo a thyroidectomy on June 8th at our medical partner’s care center. Surgeons will remove all or part of her thyroid gland. This procedure will cost $1,015, and she and her family need help raising money.
Lea said, “Kindly help me get out of this mess; I am in trouble, and I am not ready to choke to death one day and leave my children alone.”
