Mom of 3 battles cancer and impact of Melissa

WESTERN BUREAU:

Nickeisha Black, a 34-year-old mother of three young children, who resides in Bethel Town, Westmoreland, has been fighting a hard battle with Stage-3 colorectal cancer since 2024, and her situation was made even more difficult by the damage Hurricane Melissa did to her home.

According to the Ministry of Health and Wellness, colorectal cancer, which affects the colon or the rectal passage that connects the colon to the anus, is the third-most-common cancer among Jamaicans, with 800 to 900 new cases detected annually. In 2020, there were 796 new cases recorded islandwide.

Black, who has been staying with relatives in St Catherine following the damage done to her home by Melissa, told The Gleaner that her ordeal began with frequent bathroom visits that eventually caused her to lose her job.

“It started in late 2024, and at first it was just frequently going to the bathroom. Whereas I would normally go maybe two or three times a day, I started going up to six times, and then it was every time I eat, I have to go,” said Black.

“Then it started getting worse in early 2025, starting with diarrhoea, and it reached a point where I could no longer hold it. The moment I ate, it was coming right back out, and it was coming with bloody stools, and the pain just kept getting worse,” said Black.

“I lost my job after that, because I was not able to balance being ill and going to work.”

Black eventually visited the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in Montego Bay, St James, in June 2025, where she did a colonoscopy and a biopsy that confirmed she had colorectal cancer. Following that discovery, she started treatments at the hospital’s oncology clinic, only for her life to be thrown into an additional tailspin when Hurricane Melissa devastated western Jamaica last October.

LOST HOME IN MELISSA

“Hurricane Melissa came and, as a result of that, I did not have a house, and I was staying with some family members. I got really ill, and I knew that my condition was worsening because I was no longer able to eat the things that I should eat, and I just had to be eating what was there instead,” said Black.

After relocating to St Catherine to live with relatives following the hurricane, she was admitted to the Spanish Town Hospital where it was discovered that her blood count had got low due to her anaemic state. More recently, she visited the Hope Institute in St Andrew on February 17, where she was advised that she would need to do several tests to include an updated magnetic resonance imaging scan to examine her internal organs.

Black admitted that, in addition to her physical pain and her lack of funds due to being unemployed, one of the hardest parts of her ordeal is the toll it has taken on her three children.

“A lot of the burden has been on my 12-year-old son, because sometimes it is so bad that I cannot get out of bed by myself, and I have to wake him to take me to the bathroom, to take my medication, or to help me put on my clothes,” said Black.

“My eight-year-old daughter will see me and wonder why Mommy looks so sick, and my four-year-old son does not really understand, he just knows that Mommy’s not well. It hurts to know that they are there and yet I cannot give them the support and attention they need.”

Ann-Marie Berry-Grant, administrator of the Delaware-based Rebuilding Falmouth with Hands and Hearts community support group, said her organisation became aware of Black’s plight earlier this month after friends and associates helped Black to connect with them.

“Our group came about post-Melissa, and our main focus was to assist people who were and still are in need of relief items, and now we have gone to an area where we are helping people in need of care. Nickeisha [Black] came to our group for help on Friday, February 13, and she is in need of urgent care because she needs blood,” Berry-Grant told The Gleaner.

“We are trying to get her story out there so people can be aware of her need for blood. There is also need for financial support for her kids, and she has lost her home and all her furniture, but right now our main focus is getting some medical attention for her in terms of blood and other medical care,” Berry-Grant added.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com

Persons who wish to assist Nickeisha Black can contact her at 876-781-0783, or Ann-Marie Berry-Grant of the Rebuilding Falmouth with Hands and Hearts group at 1-850-238-9989.