The Makayla Belgrave story

Oct 19, 2008 News

A child overcomes the challenges of living with cancer

By Sharmain Cornette

“Oh God, tell me what did I do so wrong to cause my child to suffer like this!” was the cry of Celeste Belgrave when the doctor informed her that her only child will have to have both her eyes surgically removed. The doctor had detected the presence of a very progressive cancer in them.
There was no other way to save the life of the child, the doctor warned, but Celeste could not bring herself to make such a decision – to just let that doctor take away the only parts of her child’s body that would allow her to see pretty things, such as flowers and colourful birds. How could this be happening to her very first child?
It took the manly composure of Celeste’s husband, Michael Belgrave, to actually give the doctor consent to remove both of their little daughter’s eyes.
But that decision would prove to be a very life-changing one, since, according to Celeste, it was as if her baby sprang to life and started to bloom like a flower.
During an interview, Celeste explained that she has no idea, even to this day, how her daughter, whom she named Makayla, became infected with cancer. No member of her family or her husband’s family, for generations, had ever been diagnosed with the dreaded disease.

The happy Belgrave Family (Makayla, at centre, clings to her little brother)

But, as far as Celeste knows, she made a perfectly normal child, who eventually started to manifest signs that suggested that something was terribly wrong.
Celeste gave birth to her daughter on March 5, 2004 at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). And, according to her, although the delivery went well and all had seemed to be okay with her and the child, for some reason, the medical officials did not want her to leave the hospital.
Five days passed and Celeste still was not able to leave the GPHC, which prompted her husband, mother and grandmother to repeatedly query whether there was a problem with the child.
They were eventually informed that Makayla had cold in her eyes. They never hinted to the family that it was any major cause for concern.
Two months after Celeste had taken her daughter home, she observed that the child’s eyes were taking on a glossy appearance. This triggered a panic that saw the child being rushed back to the hospital for medical attention.
Doctors at the public hospital, as well as several private doctors, were unable to discern what was wrong with Makayla’s eyes. They were, however, able to tell the family that something was very, very wrong for a child’s eyes to take on such an appearance.
Celeste and Michael were finally referred to Eye Specialist Dr George Norton, who through a medical procedure was able to detect that the change in the child’s eyes was due to cancer.
However, the doctor informed that surgery would have to be performed on the child’s eyes, a procedure that cannot be done in Guyana.
With assistance from the Ministry of Health, Dr Norton, Ms Volda Lawrence of the People’s National Congress Reform, and family members, the young couple started making arrangements to travel to Barbados to have the operation done, but those plans fell through due to some difficulties.
They were subsequently referred to Trinidad instead, where a doctor performed a B-Scan on Makayla’s eyes and diagnosed her as having Bilateral Advanced Retinoblastoma, which is caused by the presence of cancer.
According to Celeste, she had to travel to Trinidad alone with the child, since Michael, a teacher attached to the Freeburg Secondary School, could not make the trip at that time. She observed that, soon after arriving there, the child’s eyes were swollen and had begun to ooze a watery substance.
Celeste said she questioned the doctor about the condition of Makayla’s eyes, and learnt that the disease was progressing at a rapid rate.
He advised her that urgent surgery be done on the left eye, giving the couple an inkling of hope that the child’s right eye might be just fine. It was on December 13, 2004 that that operation was done at a hospital in Port-of-Spain. It was just a few days later that the doctor disclosed that cancer had also significantly overcome the child’s right eye, thus the need for the eye’s removal.
Celeste said that she was unable at first to accept what the doctor was saying, and could do nothing else but cry and question why God had handed down such a fate to her daughter.
Michael, although optimistic that God would have worked a miracle and give his daughter perfect vision, accepted the reality and allowed the doctor to operate a second time, on December 23, 2004, literally leaving Makayla with two empty eye sockets.
Makayla had to undergo about six months of chemotherapy at the Mount Hope Hospital; and, unlike the miracle that Michael had expected, she became the daughter they dreamt of having, since she no longer appeared to be sick.
According to Celeste, when the child returned to Guyana, she was adored by family members and friends, who at no point in time treated her as though she was blind.
“She was just a normal child to everybody. She didn’t act differently, and they treated her like she belonged…Everybody just adores Makayla,” Celeste related amidst a slight chuckle.
Celeste disclosed that the only thing that worried her, after accepting the reality of the situation, was whether she could love another child as much as she loves Makayla.
Even after she became impregnated with her second child, the thought still tormented her to such an extent that she had to seek counselling from her pastor.
However, with the addition of Micquel, the couple’s newborn baby boy, they are of the belief that theirs is one of the most blessed families in the world.
According to Michael, his children are the love of his life. He noted that God allowed Makayla to be visually impaired for a reason that is yet to be truly unveiled.
“We still believe that God can work a miracle…Miracles come in different ways, and so we are living in hope,” he asserted. He added that, “I would never trade Makayla for anything.”
He disclosed that his little princess is able to do everything that a normal child can, noting that she is able to ride a bicycle she received from her aunts on her third birthday all by herself.
And though doctors had informed them of a possibility that the cancer could erupt again, Michael says, God has already taken care of Makayla’s future.
Makayla, like several other visually impaired children, is a student of the Resource Unit for Blind and Visually Impaired Students, located at the St Agnes Primary School. And, according to her father, she has the remarkable ability to learn fast and retains whatever she is taught.
He said that Makayla was just about three years old when she enrolled at the school, and has ever since been passionate about going to school.
According to the outspoken four-year-old, she plans to become a teacher when she is older, so that she could teach children, just like her father.