Buea Diocese Loses Priest to Cancer

A priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buea, Rev Fr Nicholas Happi, has died after failing to recover from a protracted cancer, the Diocesan Chancellor, Rev Michael Kengnjoh, has announced.

He died this Thursday, March 27, at the St Padre Pio Hospital in Douala, where he was recently hospitalised for cancer.

“Fr Happi Nicholas was recently diagnosed with cancer, which was already at an advanced stage. The doctors did all they could to help him; however, he has gone to be with the Lord,” Fr Kengnjoh wrote.

While offering condolences to the late priest’s family, Rev Fr Kengnjoh said burial arrangements would be revealed subsequently.

The priest’s death adds to a growing list of cancer-related fatalities registered in Cameroon yearly.

According to the Global Cancer Observatory, 12,798 Cameroonians died from cancer in 2022, with a total of 19,564 new cases recorded that year.

Breast, cervical and prostate cancers were the most prevalent, accounting for 45 cent of all cancer cases that year.

Recently, oncologists in Cameroon met in Yaoundé at an annual conference to discuss ways to combat breast cancer, the most prevalent cancer in the country with 4,207 cases in 2022.

They noticed that up to 2,000 women died of breast cancer yearly, primarily due to late diagnosis and societal myths surrounding the disease.

While most cancers are curable, many continue to die due to ignorance, lack of money to fund treatment and late diagnosis.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) prescribes four primary measures to combat cancer: prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment, and palliative care.