By: Julie Badui Owa – EM TV News, Lae
The 21-year-old young woman who was fighting breast cancer since December in 2017 passed on yesterday morning (13 January, 2019) at the Angau Hospital in Lae.
Ruth Kaupa was diagnosed with stage-3 breast cancer in December, 2017 and couldn’t continue to do her second year of Social Studies and Religion at Divine Word University.
Ruth died after returning from Manila, Philippines in September last year (2018) after undergoing the radiotherapy treatment.
The only machine for the treatment at Angau Hospital is not working. It has been in need of maintenance and repair since 2016.
EM TV took this interview in July last year when 21-year old Ruth Kaupa and her family were doing awareness to raise funds for her radiotherapy treatment overseas.
The 21-year old woman from Chimbu returned to PNG last month with her mother, after undergoing the treatment in Manila.
According to Ruth’s father, Brasty Kaupa, they had to return to the country because the treatment overseas was very expensive.
Ruth Kaupa was diagnosed with breast cancer on the 25th of December, 2017.
In January last year, Kaupa underwent surgery and had her left breast removed.
Radiotherapy was the last option for treatment. But, doctors told her radio therapy machine was out of order and that she could not be treated.
Ruth and her family raised almost K120 thousand last year for her treatment overseas.
But that wasn’t enough to help her get the treatment she urgently needed.
In the 2017 budget the national government allocated K60 million kina for two cancer treatment units in Port Moresby and Lae. They are yet to be built.
