I had given up on life

The Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance says part of the problem is the refusal of governments to give patients access to painkillers such as morphine.Maggie Beauty

It says restrictions are in place because of exaggerated fears about the risk of addiction.

Last month, health officials from almost 200 countries met at the UN and pledged to make palliative care a higher priority.

This is the first time the specialty has been recognised in this way and championed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Nestled in a banana plantation in a tiny village in Wakiso district in central Uganda, Betty Naiga, 48, lies on a thin mattress on the floor of her small yellow hut.fendi outlet online

Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

I had given up on life”

Betty Naiga Cancer patient

She was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago.

She couldn't afford treatment and the tumour grew to the size of a football.

"The pain was too much before," she said.

"I would not sleep. I would not do anything. It was excruciating. I had given up on life. I wished I was dead."

Betty lay in agony for a year, feeling lost and abandoned by her family. Until she was found by a community volunteer called Allen.

Allen is one of hundreds of volunteers trained by the country's leading palliative care provider, Hospice Africa Uganda, to go out and find people like Betty suffering in silence. Maggie Beauty