My name is Christopher Agbega and I’m from Ghana. For over a decade, I have lived with a degenerative condition known as Hereditary Motor Sensory Neuropathy, diagnosed nine years too late.
It's been over 5 years now since I got involved in the Our Views Our Voices initiative and was part of the team that developed the Ghana Advocacy Agenda of People with Living with NCDs. My experience with the NCD movement has been incredible. Through my NCD Diary I share my journey from being diagnosed to becoming an advocate. Listen in!
1 December 2023
Distant Dreams - Empty Hospital Wards
My name is Christopher Agbega from Ghana, West Africa. I live with hereditary motor sensory neuropathy, which I later discovered was responsible for my damaged nerves and wasting muscles. I have managed and lived with this paternally inherited disease for the past sixteen years.
In this episode, I tell the story of my NCD journey and the realities I have faced within Ghana's health system when it comes to equitable access to NCD services, ranging from inadequate insurance coverage to indifference towards palliative care. I need to fully reintegrate into my new reality. I also share the socioeconomic circumstances that prevented me, and still do, from accessing critical services, right from my diagnosis to managing my condition.
9 January 2024
Hold on! I was not alone...?
In episode one, I shared my story of living with motor-sensory neuropathy for the past sixteen years, and the challenges I have faced within Ghana's health system, highlighting the socioeconomic barriers and everyday hurdles to equitable access for critical NCD services.
In this episode, I talk about how becoming an advocate made me realise I am not alone in facing inequitable access to Ghana’s health system. I introduce the Ghanaian community of people living with NCDs, emphasising the stories of specific persons who have fought and keep fighting for their lives against the many tides of health inequities.
29 January 2024
With one voice we speak!
In episode two, I talked about how becoming an advocate made me realise I am not alone in facing inequitable access to Ghana's health system. I also introduced the Ghanaian community of people living with NCDs, emphasising the stories of people who have fought and keep fighting for their lives against the many tides of health.
In this third and final episode, we speak, ask and request. I make my calls on the Ghanian government and governments across the world to embrace strategies that promote health equity and prevent the discriminatory treatment of people living with NCDs.
NCD Diaries
What good can come out of this condition? All that period that I didn't have a diagnosis meant that I had a lived experience that was a very important tool to bring in change.
Christopher Agbega, lived experience of neurological disorder, Ghana
About NCD DIARIES
The NCD Diaries use rich and immersive multimedia approaches to share lived experiences to drive change, using a public narrative framework.
