Vast of Bracket narrates how he survived cancer

After seven months of undergoing treatment for Lymphoma, a type of cancer of the blood, in Platinum Medical Centre, Wellington, London, Vast of Bracket in a recent interview narrates how it all happened. Take time to read.

How did it happen?

I don't know what to say, but first of all, I want to give thanks to God. I was very sick. Before I went to the hospital, I attended a couple of shows. I wondered how I was able to perform at the shows because I was seriously ill. My partner, Obumneme Ali a.k.a Smash and I had series of shows and in a situation where payment has been made, I had no option than to grace the stage. We decided to round off our shows late last year in order to enable me take care of my health in 2013. But unfortunately, up till January, this year, we were still going for concerts. We even had to travel to Australia to stage a concert.

Then, I was visiting one of the hospitals in Lagos, and that was where I was diagnosed. They carried out all the medical examinations, and when the results came out, the Haematologist advised me to seek for further treatment abroad.

If you have travelled to America or any Schengen country within two years, you can apply for a Priority Visa and we were qualified to do so. We applied and within four days, the visa came out. We met a friend in the UK who introduced us to his brother who is a Medical Doctor. He assisted us and we met a Haematologist who advised that I should re-run all the tests again.

The only thing we didn't do was the surgery which I did back home before I was diagnosed of suffering from blood cancer. After everything, they started with the treatment they called 'Bone Marrow'. It wasn't an easy one, it was very difficult. I thought I would loose all the blood in my body but thank God I survived it. After a week, I started having complications, I had to return to the hospital to have blood transfusion after which I felt better. We spent a lot of money. At a point, I was hopeless and was only praying to God for His mercies.

After the second chemotherapy,
I started exercising because the
doctor advised me to do regular
exercise. However, it was after
the third chemotherapy that the
pictures I took while in the
hospital leaked. By then, I was
already bouncing back to life
because I passed through the
valley of the shadow of death. After the fourth chemotherapy,
we shot a video, 'Temperature'
in London .

I didn't even know I could do
that. I initially thought the cycle
would be six but before the fifth
chemotherapy, the doctor
informed us that it was going to
be eight. I got confused at that
point and even doubted what
they were doing. I thought they
just wanted to milk me because
it was expensive. My manager,
partner and Chief Executive
Office however encouraged me
to complete the treatment.

I was only going to the hospital, then to the gymnasium and back to the house. After the seventh chemo, I was told to do a Lumber Punch- they would have to inject my spine. It was done after the fifth chemo and it was very painful. I thought I would be paralysed. I was told the Lumber Punch was necessary to prevent the disease from getting to the brain. At that point, our account was almost in the red.

Luckily, a friend known as Ugonna came to London during my third chemo and was moved when he heard that we had accommodation problem. He later gave us some money to look for one. Ugonna was the only person that assisted me financially apart from the prayers and encouragement of my fans and the media. I did the Lumber Punch and lost a lot of blood.

Two days after, I went to get another chemo. When one undergoes chemo, it kills both the good and the bad cells and flushes out all the blood in your system. So, you have to be refreshing. Imagine losing so much blood after the Lumber Punch and after the chemo. I was almost a dead person. My colour overnight. I remembered what the doctor told me that cancer is not the problem but the treatment.

After a week and a half, I started exercising, taking juice and everything that would help build my blood again.I was finally cleared from the hospital and I thank God for His mercies. A lot of people came to our house to rejoice with us when we returned to the country during the week. I want to thank them. The likes of P-Square, Jimmy Jatt, Dammy Krane, KCee, Chidinma, Illbliss, JMartins and many others.