Family recounts Iyamulemye’s battle with prostate cancer, gov’t called to acquire PET scan

The government of Uganda has been urged to invest in a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan machine to prevent citizens from incurring the devastating financial costs of seeking advanced cancer diagnostics abroad.

The call came from Bridget Nyirigira Iyamulenye, the widow of Dr Emmanuel Lyamulemye, the former Executive Director of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), who passed away on Tuesday.

Speaking at his requiem mass held today, Wednesday, at St Charles Lwanga Catholic Church, Ntinda, Mrs Iyamulenye said her husband received the best care possible, but that they faced a big challenge in the absence of this critical equipment in Uganda.

“My husband has not died because of lack of care; he was in the best hospitals in Turkey and Germany. He also has a great team of doctors here. The only reason we had to go abroad was because we do not have a PET scan in the country,” she said.

“I wish to appeal to the government to invest in a PET scan as that would save us so much money that people are spending travelling outside the country.”

At the service, Mrs Iyamulenye gave a personal account of Iyamulemye’s life and final years. 

She described her husband, with whom she had been married since 1994 and shared four children, as a devoted provider and a workaholic.

“He loved and provided for us and made sure we never lacked anything. He worked late, which often worried me. At times I forced him to call me on his office line to confirm that he was still at work late at night,” she recounted.

A senior nurse herself, working at Mulago National Referral Hospital, Mrs Iyamulenye revealed that the initial diagnosis came as a shock to them. 

The cancer, she said, was found completely by chance during a precautionary medical check-up in Turkey in October 2023. 

“He was well until 2023. The day they made the diagnosis, he had no sickness at all or any symptoms. He just decided to go for a medical check-up in Turkey,” she explained.

Due to Turkey’s advanced technology, tests, including one for Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA), were processed quickly. 

A high PSA result, circled in red, flagged the potential for prostate cancer, which was immediately confirmed through further testing. Treatment was started swiftly.

The couple later sought a second opinion in Germany, which also confirmed the diagnosis. 

When they went back to Germany last October, she said, they received the devastating news that he had only about two months to live. 

Mrs Iyamulenye praised her husband’s faith and courage in the face of death. “He was very courageous. He had faith and he was strong. He believed he would recover.”

She confirmed that, despite the tragic outcome, her husband received excellent clinical attention both internationally and locally, but stressed that the continuous travel for essential diagnostic monitoring was financially ruinous. 

Her final, public plea serves as a memorial, urging the state to close the medical gap that cost Ugandan citizens dearly.