Copyright 2004 The Omaha World-Herald Company  
Omaha World Herald (Nebraska)
March 19, 2004, Friday SUNRISE EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1b; Rainbow Rowell
LENGTH: 526 words
HEADLINE: Readers' generosity sends sick man home

Kwame Bannor is going home.

It won't be the reunion he imagined 14 years ago when he left Ghana.

Kwame, now 56, left Ghana in 1990 so that he could find a better job in America, a better way of supporting his family. When he returned to his wife and children someday, he wanted them to see him as the strong father, the good provider.

The vision of that homecoming has faded since Kwame was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease last year.

First Kwame lost control over his hands. Now he has weakness in his legs, too.

In November, he had to give up his job as a parking attendant at the downtown Doubletree Hotel.

Kwame struggled with rent, with medical bills and with the future - what would happen to him as his disease advanced?

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis attacks nerve cells and pathways in the brain and spinal cord. People with ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, lose voluntary muscle control - and eventually become paralyzed.

The average life expectancy for ALS patients is two to five years from diagnosis.

Kwame wondered how he would spend the time he had left. He didn't want to live in a nursing home. He didn't want to stay in Omaha and be dependent on strangers.

What he wanted was to go home, back to Ghana, where his family could take care of him.

But a man who can't work to pay the rent can't afford a plane ticket to Ghana.

I wrote about Kwame's condition March 1.

Generous World-Herald readers immediately responded to Kwame's story.

Thousands of dollars came in over just a few days, said Melva Woods, Kwame's former boss at the Doubletree garage. She organized the fund-raiser for Kwame.

Many of the donors were people who work downtown and park at the Doubletree, she said, people who had talked with Kwame while he was working.

Others were strangers who just wanted to help.

More than enough money was raised to cover Kwame's plane ticket and the costs of shipping his belongings and medical equipment to Ghana.

The local ALS Association is gathering equipment for him to take to Africa, things he may need as his disease advances - a walker, a motorized wheelchair, etc.

Kwame isn't sure what medical resources will be there for him in Ghana. He had never heard of Lou Gehrig's disease before his own diagnosis.

Four countries in Africa have programs for people with ALS, said Ric Miller of the ALS Association's Nebraska Office. Ghana is not one of them.

But Kwame should be able to find a neurologist in Ghana who is familiar with the disease, Miller said.

Kwame already is preparing to leave Omaha.

He flies to the East Coast in mid-April and will spend a week or so with family in New Jersey. His flight for Ghana departs April 24.

It will be hard, he said, for his family to see him like this. Kwame has 10 children. His youngest sons are just 14 and 18. They know him only from phone calls and photographs.

He hasn't called his family since he found out he could go home.

"I think they will be very sorry for my sickness but very happy to see me ..."

"Their happiness will not be full."

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Copyright 2004 The Omaha World-Herald Company  
Omaha World Herald (Nebraska)
March 1, 2004, Monday SUNRISE EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1b; Rainbow Rowell
LENGTH: 533 words

Many times, I have written about people who have sacrificed everything to come to this country and build new lives for themselves.

That was Kwame Bannor's story 14 years ago.

But today, Kwame would give up everything just to get home.

Home. To Ghana. Where his wife and 10 children will take care of him.

Kwame, 56, can't take care of himself anymore - not since he lost the use of his hands last year to Lou Gehrig's disease.

If he stays in Omaha, Kwame's not sure what will become of himself. He has rent to pay and medical bills, but no way to earn a paycheck.

His family in Ghana wants to take care of him - they tell him to come home - but they can't afford to send him money for a plane ticket.

It was always Kwame who sent them money.

In 1990, after Kwame lost his business during political upheaval, he sat down with his wife, and they decided that he would leave Ghana for America.

He says Americans don't understand how he could leave his family for so long.

"It's not like your country," Kwame said.

"I had to come and work and make a better life and take care of my kids."

In Ghana, he had worked as a trader, traveling to Europe and America to bring products to sell at home.

In America, he moved around some before settling in Omaha four years ago. He came here because he had heard there were jobs and affordable housing.

Kwame has worked in Omaha at the airport and as a security guard. Most recently, he worked in the parking garage at the downtown Doubletree Hotel.

He gave up that job in November when he couldn't use his hands at all anymore.

He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis last summer. "I had never heard of it before," Kwame said.

ALS attacks nerve cells and pathways in the brain and spinal cord.

People with it lose voluntary muscle control - and eventually become paralyzed. The average life expectancy is two to five years from diagnosis.

"They told me, 'Kwame, this has no cure. When it gets worse, they're going to send you to a nursing home.'

"Then I decided, 'No. It's better to go home.'"

Even though he hates to think of going home like this.

It's not death that troubles him, Kwame said. "Some time, we all will pass away." What upsets him is watching his strength slip away.

"It's been a very long time since I'm seeing my kids, and now I am going home sick."

Kwame's two youngest sons, ages 14 and 18, know him only from phone calls and photographs. They won't ever have known their father when he was vital and strong.

"Even my talking is changing. Always, I am thinking about it. But what can I do? Nothing.

"If it's God's will," he said, "there's nothing I can do."

Nothing but go home.

The ALS Association and the Doubletree are trying to help Kwame raise the money he needs to fly home and ship medical equipment to Ghana.

Donations can be made to First National Bank of Omaha, Attn: Personal Banking, Melva Woods for Kwame Bannor, 1620 Dodge St., Stop 1026, Omaha, NE 68197.

Kwame hopes to see his family again by the end of April.

"I don't want May to get me here," he said. "By May - I'm gone."