Oct 22 Newsletter – What can MANSAG do for me?
Title: What can MANSAG do for me?
Welcome to this edition of the MANSAG Newsletter.
One of the questions I get asked all the time when I speak to another Nigerian medical or other healthcare professional about joining MANSAG is: “What has
MANSAG done for me?” Over the years, I have thought about this question and I would like to share my reflections.
Our Nigerian community is incredibly diverse and resourceful. We have Nigerians in various leadership roles in the NHS, leading researchers, entrepreneurs, actors, authors, lifestyle coaches, mentors, and so on. We are the 5th largest immigrant
group in the UK, and I feel certain that we can do much better to create an organisation that matches the full scale of our human, social and intellectual capitals.
Recently, I was having a conversation with a barber in Cheetham Hill about my charity work and organ donation campaign. I was caught off guard when he asked me a question about what is lacking in Nigeria and Africa as a whole regarding organ donation. This conversation made me realise that organ donation is a mystery for many people from Nigeria and Africa generally.
Nobody in the African and/or Caribbean community talks about their ill-health. It’s a taboo subject. Before my health problems began, I never would have thought that I would be the one travelling around the UK, speaking to small and large crowds about organ donation.
Sometimes I compare my life now to Saul in the Bible, who persecuted the disciples but later became a convert himself. It takes me back to how my own journey started.