What it’s like to be a cancer patient in Yemen today

Taiz, Yemen – Sina al-Asbahi, 29, was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago. For two years, she received chemotherapy every three weeks at Al-Amal health centre in Taiz.

However, the closure of the centre in April last year left her with very few options.

Her family, which lives 70km from Taiz in the village of al-Asabeh, braved ongoing fighting and a siege on the city to take Asbahi to a temporary clinic set up in the city centre. But her brother, Osama, told Al Jazeera that once they arrived, a doctor said the clinic had run out of chemical injections and did not offer radiation therapy.

After borrowing more than $2,300 to send Asbahi to 280km journey to Sanaa every three weeks for chemotherapy, Asbahi’s family could no longer afford her cancer treatment.

Asbahi stopped going to Sanaa last June, and she died on February 28.

“Painkillers were the only things we could give Sina during the last three months, because we did not have money to help her,” Osama said, visibly shaken by the loss of his sister.

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