Elizabeth Atonet needs help.
Elizabeth Atonet
She needs it to restore her left knee, her netball career and part of her life.
The Uganda national team netball player has spent the last three months looking for it but now the search is critical.
Three weeks ago, Atonet found out that the injury she sustained at Namboole on June 2, when the She Cranes were still training for the 2015 netball world cup, had left the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee “completely torn” and will require surgery.
Of course, she cannot pay for the procedure and that is how we get to this plea. This tragedy! Treating Elizabeth’s injury should not be her responsibility. It is bad enough it happened. The responsibility belongs to the country she was going to represent when she got injured.
Oh Uganda!
“I don’t want to talk about the netball federation because I know they don’t have the money to contribute to my surgery,” a respectful Atonet said in an exclusive interview at the New Vision head offices on Thursday.
Atonet hopes to play for the She Cranes again so her diplomatic response to the Uganda Netball Federation’s (UNF) disappointing lack of support is understandable.
“I need help,” she pleaded.
The 25 year-old was first called to the national set-up as a 16 year-old, for an under 21 assignment.
In 2008, she was named netballer-of-the-year by the Uganda Sports Press Association because of her exploits with St Mary’s Kitende, NIC netball club and the U-21 national team.
Those were the days, as they say.
But Elizabeth revealed, “These have been the worst three months of my life.
“I have a lot of pain. I have to walk with a crutch to reduce the pain. But it has been very difficult. My education has been affect-
ed as I am late for my lectures these days.”
Asked how she copes with the frustration of passing through this dark chapter of her life, not knowing when it will end, she responds, “I just don’t want to think about it, it just makes me depressed”.
But obviously she can’t avoid thinking about it. Every tiny extension of the left knee results in a painful reminder. What used to
be done without thought now elicits pointed pangs.
But the good news is all this is one act of kindness away from changing. As an illustration, chief of Special Forces Command Brigadier Muhoozi Kainerugaba paid for Elizabeth’s MRI Scan last month. Efforts to reach him for more support are on-going.
Elizabeth needs sh4.7m for a thorough examination of the ACL rapture via an autoscope. Through that, it will be determined whether the surgery can be performed in Uganda, which would cost another sh6m.
Otherwise, it would be done abroad, at a higher cost.
Elizabeth’s left knee is hurt but her spirit is still effervescent.
“I know I will bounce back,” she declared. “I still hope to play professional netball”.
Elizabeth’s career is far from over as she can fully recover from this setback.
But it will be if she doesn’t go for surgery. Surely, this should not be allowed
By Charles Mutebi, The New Vision