Nobody ever plans to get sick, but it happens anyway. Some illnesses like malaria or flu, while painful to experience, have a relatively modest impact on our medium-term well-being and finances. There are however some health challenges that we all pray that we never have to deal with – heart conditions, organ failures, and cancer are ready examples. When these things occur, friends and family members are drawn into the situation due to the toll that they can take on multiple aspects of the victim’s life.

Regular check-ups, early detection and relatively minor adjustments in lifestyle can delay some of these dreaded diseases for many years-or prevent them altogether.

Nonetheless, these unfortunate critical illnesses occur despite our best efforts and victims and their family members have to find a way to deal with them.

In 2020, it was estimated that there were about 72,000 cancer-related deaths annually in Nigeria. In  2019, it was estimated that heart conditions and stroke accounted for 4.37% and 3.98% of total deaths respectively in the country. The cost of cancer treatments varies by cancer type and severity. Chemotherapy, a required treatment for advanced-stage cancer costs between N600,000 to a N1.5million per session. 

Research also indicates that over 30 million Nigerians are suffering from kidney diseases. Patients pay as high as N150,000 for three sessions of dialysis every week and about N5million annually. Cost of a kidney transplants ranges between N2m and N3m.

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