I Bought My Grave, Did My Funeral after Lupus Diagnosis, Victim Recounts

By Olawale Ajimotokan

Jacquie Achu, a victim of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, an inflammatory disease occasioned by the immune system attacking its own tissues, has revealed her horrible trauma from the ailment.

The UK-based Nigerian revealed that she actually did her own funeral and bought her grave in preparation for death following clinical pronouncement she had only three days to live after she was diagnosed with Lupus in 2003.

She shared this startling experience with the media during a walk against Lupus organised by Arise Monalisa Foundation and Everight Diagnostic Centre in Abuja as part of activities to mark World Lupus Day.

Lupus is a silent killer which affects the joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs of its victims.

“When I mean pain, you have a pain that does not go away. So, I have lived with pains for 18 years. And it does not go away; it is 24/7,” Achu revealed.

Achu said she began to feel ill with boiling temperature, loss of weight, then spinning and exhaustion after she had her last child in 2003.

The trauma she was passing through, which defied medical explanation, coupled with the domestic violence she was subjected to, sent her weight crashing from size 14 to six.

The pain with enfeebling effect persisted before she was tested for Lupus in 2005 after she lost her ability to walk and was bedridden for two years.

“It persisted and they began to look for what was the cause. They tested for HIV, Sickle Cell Anaemia and every illness that is known to the black people because I actually lived in the UK.

” And it took two years and by that time the pain had become debilitating. I lost my movement and I was bedridden for two years.

” In 2005 I was given three days to live. I actually did my own funeral and bought my grave because in England you have to buy your own grave and all that.

“I came out of a coma and again I became crippled for two years again, I had to go on my bums, crawl on kneels-up and down the stairs, raising my children. The ailment also affects the digestive system,” Achu said.

She said over the years she had developed mind over matter, dealing with a migraine that lasts for three months and being bedridden for two years before later switching to a wheelchair to enable her to move around.

“In the last 18 years, I have learnt my symptoms and they are not the same. Some people have theirs differently. I take 36 tablets every day for everything from my head to my toe.

” We decided to bring it here because mine was hereditary and it’s predominantly among the Africans, the Caribbean and the Asian ethnic region and its 93 to 95 per cent among women age from 15-55.

“There are so many things that can trigger it. Mine was dormant but was triggered by domestic abuse. Harsh weather can trigger it as well as environmental factors like lifestyle and poverty.

“Harsh medication can trigger but those ones are circumstantial. But which is not circumstantial is when you have to live with it. We have to make it visible. We want to also show that there is strength in every weakness”.

Nollywood actress Monalisa Chinda-Coker , joined by another actor, Segun Arinze, led the walk.

She said the foundation and Everight Diagnostic Centre, came together to bring this auto-immune ailment to the front burner in Nigeria for people to know what Lupus disease is all about.

“This is the time for us to begin to look after our body instead of doing self-medication. You might not know what you are going through, it might be Lupus, it might be your immune system needs boosting and that.

“I have people who have died too, friends, distant relatives who have passed on because of the immune disease and we did not know what it was because nobody knows what this sickness is all about.

“When COVID-19 came, it was the same way; when Malaria came people were running around like headless chickens looking for a solution,” Chinda said.