Africa-Press – Uganda. Several mourners Monday turned up at Nyakabungo village in Ruhaama sub-county, Ntungamo District to pay their last respects to one of the longest diabetes and prostate cancer patients who had turned himself into an advocate of its prevention and management.
Eliakim Kato, 73, a retired primary school head teacher succumbed to diabetes and prostate cancer that resulted in multiple organ failure at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital on Saturday evening.
For 31 years, Kato has been undergoing diabetes treatment and had featured in most newspapers, and on radio and television for his breakthrough management of the disease. While managing diabetes, he developed prostate cancer which he also managed for 27 years.
“He was passionate about everything that affected the elders. He fought against diabetes and cancer and led the way for many. Whatever he did he did it with passion and wanted to impact many,” Mr Joram Ruranga Tibasiimwa, the Western region Elderly Member of Parliament said at his burial.
Following his retirement from teaching, Kato made diabetes advocacy one of his daily jobs going home to home searching for diabetes patients to compare notes on medicine and survival. He discovered the use of several herbal medicines especially when he found out he had prostate cancer as well.
“My mother was diabetic some years before him, when he discovered he was diabetic, he came home and asked her how she managed it. At times they would share medicine. Whenever he found any new thing that he thought would aid her, he would come running. We shall miss a passionate fighter,” Mr Henry Nkwasibwe Zinkurateire, a mourner, said.
He founded organizations at different government health facilities to fight diabetes and prostate cancer and wrote several papers to letters calling for government support to diabetic and cancer patients.
Preaching at his burial ceremony, the South Ankole Diocese Bishop Rt Rev Nathan Ahimbisibwe called on believers to abandon hate and worldly wars caused by selfishness. He called for proper care of elderly patients and prioritization of behavioural infections like cancer and diabetes in government health facilities.
Kato who started his teaching career at Mbarara Junior School in 1975 retired as a head teacher at Kabungo primary school in 2012. He was the founder chairperson Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) Ntungamo chapter, a position he held from 2003 to 2011.
He is survived by 4 children and a wife. His son Simon Tusiime said his father was an all-around parent who was a politician, farmer, rights advocate and a strong believer in institutions.
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