Cancer survivor who overcame a death wish to excel in KCSE now aspires to be a doctor
Vincent Gakuhi, who sat for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam and excelled had initially wished to die due to cancer disease.
He went on to overcome insurmountable challenges to emerge among the top students in the 2025 KCSE countrywide in the results announced last week.
Vincent, a cancer survivor, scored an A grade of 82 points at Alliance High School and now wants to pursue medicine and become an oncologist so as to help people who have to live with cancer conditions.
Frustrated by the suffering he went through on account of his mouth cancer sickness, he had told his mother he did not see the need to sit for the exam and would rather undergo euthynasia.
“He told me that I should allow him to be subjected to mercy killing by signing the necessary papers because he believed he would still die from the disease even if he did the exam,” recalled his mother Lucy Gathoni.
But instead, she prayed for and encouraged him to go for the KCSE exams, assuring him that he had been declared cancer free.
Speaking at their Ruai home in Nairobi County, Vincent explained how several times during the exam he would leave some questions unanswered due to pain he was experiencing after he was earlier hit in the mouth by a fellow student during an argument.
The mother who is a nurse said her son, on finishing his primary school education, just after he sat for the KCPE exam, was diagnosed with ‘maxilla sarcoma’, a cancer that affects the upper jaw tissues, which is very rare.
And so began a long, desperate, costly and tedious journey of treatment in various hospitals locally and in India where he finally underwent an operation to remove part of his dental structure.
“Things were not easy for us because his health condition deteriorated and he got burns all over as as a result of the chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He couldn’t eat or even walk for weeks,” said Gathoni.
She further recalled that after Vincent agreed to do the exam, he went mute and even refused to eat for some time, a thing that was worrying.
The last born in a family of three children, two boys and a girl, Vincent says he wasn’t surprised by the good grade he got because he had prepared well for the exam.
A neighbour and friend Victoria Jalenga while appreciating Vincent’s sterling performance, explained how she had prayed for and encouraged him not to give up hope.
Redempta Jalenga, a family friend described Vincent aa a well behaved and hard working young man and hailed him for posting impressive marks despite the challenges he faced.
Vincent and his two other siblings were raised by their mother singlehandedly after their father died in a road accident while they were still young.
