Njambi Koikai battled thoracic endometriosis for 19 long years, the chronic condition made her lose jobs as well as fake friends.
Endometriosis is a painful disorder in which tissue that normally lines the uterus grows outside the uterus. It’s usually occasioned by very painful menstruation.
Njambi underwent a painful experience battling the condition, especially in 2017 when she suffered collapsed lungs during her menstrual cycle. (Overall she suffered 12 lung collapses.)
The popular reggae presenter underwent 21 surgeries in total in Kenya and abroad before she could experience normal menstruation.
She left Kenya in February 2018 for treatment in Atlanta, US, and only returned home in August 2019 after successful multiple surgeries.
Since returning home after winning the battle with endometriosis, Njambi has been championing for the end endometriosis campaign to raise awareness of the little-known disease.
Speaking on how the condition adversely affected her, Njambi recalled an incident where she was fired from Metro FM after she got sick.
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Njambi shot to fame hosting reggae shows in the pioneer urban radio Metro FM before she moved to television then took a long break because of her condition.
“It was tough handling sickness and nobody knew what I was going through. It was unfortunate that nobody believed I was sick, from my bosses, colleagues, lecturers until it was almost tragic. That is when people started believing I was sick.
“I lost a reggae job on TV. What happened, on this one day, I was so sick to even go to the studio to record for the show. I called my colleague and told her I was not well. It was the first time I was missing and I was supposed to interview someone and so, I failed to show up,” Njambi said during an interview with Mungai Eve.
Njambi said that her colleague knew she was sick since they were from the same school but ultimately set her up to be fired after she missed the show.
“She told me I had absconded my duty. She pushed the issue to our HR and said I refused to attend. I was fired despite her knowing that I was sick. She knew I was sick since we were schoolmates. I left and that helped to seek treatment.”
