By Yero S. Bah
The John Bass Kidney Foundation was established some few years back by Mr. John Bass, a one-time healthy professional footballer with the Gambia’s national senior football team, the Scorpions; where he played several international matches for his nation with a strong passion to make the country proud in the world of football.
But John’s life turned upside down in 2018, at least two weeks before the first leg of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) qualifiers between The Gambia and Benin, when he was diagnosed with kidney failure at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH). This was after a weeklong training with the national team as they prepared for the game against Benin as well as for the FA cup finals.
In an exclusive interview with Mansa Banko Online on 18 May, 2020 in Lamin village, Kombo East, West Coast Region, the former Gambian international vividly depicted how he noticed that something wasn’t right with his health when he started feeling tired, tasty and his feet get hotter daily. That condition forced him to visit the hospital and was diagnosed with kidney failures, and immediately put on dialysis at the EFSTH in Banjul for four months before his kidneys were transplanted in India; his cousin has donated him a kidney, as Bass divulged.
The former footballer had decided to come up with a Kidney Foundation in Lamin village, to help raise awareness about kidney diseases or failures, saying many Gambians are going through similar medical conditions knowingly or unknowingly in society.
He claimed that over 80 Gambians are in hospitals suffering from kidney failures, but noted that Gambian hospitals don’t have enough beds to accommodate all of these patients.
The ex-Scorpions defender alleges, “Some patients are turned away because hospitals don’t have enough beds in the country.”
Meanwhile, the ex-player and Kidney Foundation chief’s aims and objectives are to establish another health facility in other parts of the country that would help accommodate more patients suffering from this disease, in the future; acquire more vehicles to transport patients. He also envisaged having a kidney transplant facility in the Gambia, reasoning it’s a condition that is painful and patients suffering from it need urgent attention. The kidneys filter all that people eat or drink to separate the poisonous waste from good food substances in the human body.
It could be refreshed that Bass played for Brikama United; Gambia Ports Authority from 2014 to 2018. Prior to that, he was with Sana Jatta Memorial Football Academy in Lamin village before moving to the Scorpions senior national team in 2017 when he represented the country at the 2017 CAF qualifiers in Benin, Togo, Ghana and Morocco.
Bass told this medium that the foundation was established purely to raise awareness on kidney diseases such as kidney failures as a deadly disease that is killing Gambians.
The erstwhile professional player also delved into Gambian football, admitting it is difficult and only passion would keep one there.
“I had talent but it is not easy in the Gambia; the set up in Gambian football is not organized; and it is the weakest football league in the sub-region,”Bass opined. He maintained that playing football in the Gambia is discouraging since, in his views, there are no good sporting facilities; there are lesser remunerations; and therefore, it is only mere love for the game that keeps one in it.
The former player admitted that football brought him a lot of connections locally and internationally,and endless opportunities, adding, “It has actually molded me in life”.
Bass used the opportunity availed by this interview to exhort people to go in for regular medical checkups, exercise frequently and change their eating habits as well as avoid traditional concoctions by marabouts to maintain their health status. He bemoaned that Gambians eat badly, especially the jumbos and the likes of it.
The ex-Gambian international informed that the coronavirus outbreak has hampered their sanitization efforts in schools, communities and organizations due to the public health emergency protocols.
