Family and friends saved his life. Now, he’s fundraising to save others.

Moses Echodu grew up in the lush fields of Uganda, playing a sport that had captured his heart.  

“I love football, or soccer as Americans call it. Andit's probably the one thing that I will do passionately,” he said. “I would play it every evening right after school.”

So, he noticed right away when something began to inhibit his ability to play.  

“I was going back home after playing a football game, and my left leg could not touch the ground,” Echodu recalled.

It was the first indication that something was wrong, and it led his grandmother to take him to a clinic where he was diagnosed with malaria. But after two weeks of treatment without change, his grandmother wrote to his mother, who was studying in the capital, Kampala. Echodu’s mother asked his uncle to take him to the city, and together, they traveled to seek medical care.  

There, doctors identified a damaged vertebra, and Echodu underwent surgery. However, his health struggles continued.  

“(I) got a swollen jaw. Mom went back to the hospital. They said, ‘No, this is not something related to the backbone issue,’” Echodu said.

Doctors told him to go to the cancer ward at Mulago National Referral Hospital, the largest public hospital in the country.  

There, Echodu was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a fast-growing cancer more common in children than adults. This cancer begins in the cells of the lymphatic system and requires intensive chemotherapy for treatment.  

“My thinking,” Echodu explained, "(was) ‘Oh, this is just one week's treatment, two weeks maximum.I'llgo back and play and be back in school.’ And to my surprise, we spent one year and a half in treatment.”  

He received treatment at the Uganda Cancer Institute, which later became a member of the St. Jude Global Alliance in August 2021. The Alliance is dedicated to improving access to quality care and increasing survival rates for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases worldwide.  

During his time in treatment, his loss touched both his family and the patients around him in the cancer ward. Echodu couldn’t help but wonder if he would endure.  

“I would tell Mom, ‘I think I'm next.’ Because I had known what death was. I'd seen it,” he said.  

Echodu was able to access a free trial drug for Burkitt lymphoma, but other treatment-related costs were challenging. Family support helped him finish treatment.  

“We had to buy the supportive items, and everyone kind of chipped in ... I didn't understand what was going on at the time. But now that I’ve grown up, now that I am in the field, I understand what impact they had in my life,” he said.

His family also supported him in other ways. When chemotherapy left Echodu nauseous, his family brought him his favorite dishes. And when he became too weak to ride to the hospital on a motorcycle, his uncle bought a car to ensure he could continue treatment.  

“That's really something that helped me a lot through the journey,” Echodu said, “knowing that family was very close to me.”

As he grew up, he also had to navigate stigma around cancer treatment. Cultural myths in Uganda described cancer as a curse or witchcraft.  

“You find a family and they'll tell you, ‘No, my co-wife has bewitched my child. No, the other family bewitched our children. For us in our family, we never give birth to children with cancer.’ And you have to constantly try and educate them,” Echodu said.  

After treatment, Echodu walked with a limp, and other children excluded him from the sports he loved to play. As social pressure mounted, he began to lose confidence.

But none of that stopped one of his closest friends, who brought Echodu along to basketball and soccer games.  

“He started building my confidence, relating with me. And he just did not see me as that person. He saw me as Moses,” Echodu said.

Soon, Echodu found himself taking on new leadership roles. By the time he finished high school, he had founded a media club and a news club. “After that, I just kept growing,” Echodu said.

He became a powerful speaker and went to college. As he was about to graduate, Echodu returned to Uganda Cancer Institute. To his surprise, the chair of the board of the foundation, Dr. Jackson Orem, asked to speak with him during his visit.  

“Dr. Orem said, ‘We need you, Moses. Come and join the foundation to encourage the community around your story. Tell them that cancer is curable," Echodu said.  

And he did, volunteeringto share his story with different communities. From there, he was asked to manage a community program and gladly took the role.  

But as time passed, he wondered what other opportunities were out there. He left the foundation and began working in information technology, which he had studied in college. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived – and the foundation was hit especially hard.  

“Dr. Orem calls me and says, ‘Moses, if you do not come, we are shutting down,’” Echodu said, “And that’s how I ended up coming back to the foundation.”  

But the decision didn’t come easily. “I remember I sat down and asked him, ‘So, how much is my salary?’ And he was very honest and blunt. He said, ‘Moses, we do not have money at the foundation at this time.’”

A week after their conversation, Echodu began work as a team leader in an empty office. Over time, he pulled in more workers – past interns, recent graduates, people looking for something meaningful to do – to build his team. And to raise funds, Echodu got creative.  

“We had a mock wedding,” he said, “to raise money. And we were able to raise about 2,500 (U.S.) dollars.”

Still, the financial struggle continued.  

“In 2023, I was praying and asking God, ‘How much longer am I going to do this without money, with no pay?’ And God … he said, ‘This is your calling. You're where you're supposed to be.’”

In October of 2023, ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization of St. Jude, invited the foundation to join the St. Jude Global Alliance. The foundation later paid his first salary, and things began to fall into place. Now, Echodu is excited about what the foundation, which just welcomed a new board, will accomplish next. And it won’t have to do it alone.  

“The partnership with St. Jude and ALSAC has been one of those really extremely beneficial partnerships. Our team has gone through rigorous trainings,” he explained, listing trainings ranging from social media to biostatistics.  

Echodu also commented on how helpful the ALSAC Global Scholars Program has been to his team. The program is a 10-month college-level training with online coursework and capstone projects implemented by each scholar in their home country. It is part of the ALSAC Global Alliance program that provides training at no charge to member institutions from across the world who support the hospitals of the St. Jude Global Alliance. Echodu explained that the program helped his team understand how to work with different communities and partners.  

“It's really been, I would say, eye opening … and that’s all because of how much the program has been able to impact us in just a few months,” he said. Now, Moses is excited to see what will happen next.