At minutes to 7 p.m. on Monday, the patients and staff at the Peritoneal Dialysis Unit at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) in St Andrew knew she had arrived.

Bouncing sprightly on her tiny frame, nine-year-old Jahmelia Mustafa glowed with a radiant smile as she made her way along the corridor, greeting everyone on her way to the bed at the back of the ward.

Her mother, 31-year-old Keisha Grant, had, in fact, arrived at the bed long before, as Jahmelia had to do her usual pleasantries of bringing a smile to everyone.

Not at all perturbed by her chronic kidney failure, one had to wonder if she was, in fact, the patient or the matron of the ward.

Even more surprising was that she was travelling all the way from Clarendon to be hooked up to a dialysis machine for an arduous, lengthy treatment that can last anywhere from eight to 17 hours - the beginning of another three-day a week ritual.

What does the cheerful young lady want more than anything?

"Fry chicken. I want fry chicken," she declared in her fine voice, with that infectious smile. "And rice and peas," she added, after some thought.

Sadly, she will never again be able to sample such fare.

Jahmelia was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2010 after several visits to the doctors who tried to find the source of her excruciating pain.

After being admitted to the Bustamante Hospital for Children for over a month, it was discovered that her kidneys were failing and she needed dialysis, along with other critical treatment.

MOM STRUGGLING

Grant, a single mother of two - Jahmelia being the younger, now struggles to meet the more than $100,000 monthly expenditure that her daughter's treatment demands.

A cosmetologist by profession, mom hardly finds time for work because of the hectic schedule required to care for her child.

"From Jahmelia get sick, the most I can get to see is one or two clients for the month. If it wasn't for the help I get from church, Jahmelia's school, my mother, the doctors and the hospital, I don't know what I would do," she said.

"It is very, very hard. Is years since I get anything from her father for any of the children."

Jahmelia's failing health is also affecting her education. Because of the lengthy travel to undergo the even lengthier treatment, she hardly gets to attend school.

"We have to come to town Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the dialysis treatment every week, and she has to leave school half day on those days to reach here in time," her mother noted.

"If the machine is giving problem and she come off it late the next day, then she can't go to school that day. So she is not going to school regularly like a child is supposed to. Because of that, she had to repeat grade three, but she still struggling."

Grant said she often prays to find a kidney match and enough money to afford her child a kidney transplant.

"If help is out there and willing to help Jahmelia, I would be so grateful," she stated, adding that she lives in constant fear for her daughter's life.

As her daughter comes closer to hug her mom with a brilliant smile, Grant looks down on Jahmelia and returns the smile, sharing that she gets her strength from her highly spirited child.

"If she was a poorly child maybe it would affect me more, but most of the time she is stronger than me. She always up and down and, as people would say, she full of mouth," the mom said, laughing for the first time.

"She always have an answer for everything; she don't even have to think."

The hopeful mom said she has reached too far to turn back and is praying that one day her daughter will be able to go to college and later take care of herself.

As for Jahmelia, "I just want to get better and play and go to school to see my friends."

anastasia.cunningham@gleanerjm.com