A teacher who had to quit due to having a melon-sized tumour on his face is unrecognisable and back at work after surgery.
Auguste, 64, developed a small spot on his jaw 13 years ago aged 51 - which grew over the years until it was the size of a MELON.
The grandfather quit his beloved job as a headteacher in 2018 because it became difficult for him to talk, eat and even sleep.
Auguste, from Dakar, Senegal, tried to find a treatment for years but struggled - until he was advised to visit hospital ship Mercy Ships which happened to be docked nearby.
He met with a volunteer surgeon on board and and was booked in for the life-changing surgery to fully remove the growth.
On March 13, 2023, he went under the knife and woke up to see his face tumour-free for the first time in over a decade.
He even returned to work - despite being of retirement age - because he sees teaching as his 'calling'.
Auguste, 64, developed a small spot on his jaw 13 years ago aged 51 - which grew over the years until it was the size of a MELON.
The grandfather quit his beloved job as a headteacher in 2018 because it became difficult for him to talk, eat and even sleep.
Auguste, from Dakar, Senegal, tried to find a treatment for years but struggled - until he was advised to visit hospital ship Mercy Ships which happened to be docked nearby.
He met with a volunteer surgeon on board and and was booked in for the life-changing surgery to fully remove the growth.
On March 13, 2023, he went under the knife and woke up to see his face tumour-free for the first time in over a decade.
He even returned to work - despite being of retirement age - because he sees teaching as his 'calling'.
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FunTranscript
00:00I've always wanted to become a teacher.
00:07Teaching is a passion.
00:11You learn a lot from children.
00:15You say you teach children, but it's the children who teach you.
00:31If you do not teach, it is a burden.
00:51I used to think that kangaroos were small.
00:54I used to mash them and then I started to grow them.
00:58In 2013, I started going to the hospital to get treatment.
01:02That's when they asked me to do the radio,
01:05and through the radio I became a tanker.
01:19When you're disabled, you can't do anything,
01:22you can't do anything,
01:24because they're going to run you over,
01:26and if they get close to you, you're going to get contaminated.
01:32They just have to look at you.
01:34Even if you tell them something,
01:36they don't understand what you're saying,
01:38but that's the way it is.
01:40They're there, they're looking at you,
01:42they're looking at you.
01:44I had to go to Côte d'Ivoire
01:47with someone who recommended me
01:50to a private clinic there.
01:52I had to do the operation,
01:55but because of the enemy,
01:57I wasn't able to do the operation.
02:00I just wanted to go to the hospital,
02:02and they told me to go to Benawai,
02:05but I didn't want to go.
02:07I told them I had a problem with my boat,
02:09and asked if I could go on the boat,
02:11because as soon as I got there,
02:13I couldn't do anything.
02:22Well the first time I met August
02:24actually was right when he came in.
02:26So it was his admission.
02:28What I noticed about him
02:30is that he was very joyful.
02:32So often when people come in,
02:34and they have a visible defect,
02:37they're often very quiet or very shy.
02:40For August that was different.
02:42I felt like he came in very joyful,
02:44very approachable.
02:46He was very happy, very colorful dressed.
02:48He was really like a personality that came in actually.
02:51The day of surgery,
02:54and him wheeling into the operating room,
02:57he was excited.
02:59You could tell that he's been dealing
03:02with this tumor for a very long time.
03:04So the idea, the opportunity
03:07to have this thing removed
03:09was probably pretty exciting.
03:21I really hope the world for this man.
03:24Honestly, when these people have their surgery,
03:27it's such a fragile time.
03:29There's so much about a human that makes you human
03:32that is not really there when you've had a surgery,
03:35because you are so fragile and you need a lot of care.
03:38And despite that,
03:40I feel like August really still remained his personality.
03:51August, the first patient I've met,
03:54who does everything himself
03:56because he really understands and values
03:58what he has been given,
04:00like the gift of surgery and the gift of healing,
04:03and that he really wants to carry that on
04:05in taking good care of himself.
04:07So when he does, he will close his curtain
04:09and he will do his exercises by himself.
04:11He reads his Bible.
04:13He reads other books.
04:15So there's a lot of things that he does
04:18when he reads other books.
04:20So that is one side of him.
04:22And then the other side of him
04:24is that he loves to interact with other people,
04:26us as a medical team,
04:28but also really the other patients.
04:35I cannot help but just love him back, to be honest.
04:39I really have so much love for this man.
04:41And to me, he really deserves a restoration
04:44of what has been broken for him.
04:51Cheers!
05:19Voilà.
05:22But when we went to see him,
05:24we saw that when he came here,
05:26everyone was happy.
05:28First of all, the kids.
05:30They knew that he had a passion for what he was doing,
05:33that he wanted to do what he was doing.
05:35Because if he didn't study,
05:37he wouldn't be able to go to school
05:39and he wouldn't be able to go to school
05:41and he wouldn't be able to go to school
05:43and he wouldn't be able to go to school
05:45and he wouldn't be able to go to school
05:47and he wouldn't be able to go to school
05:50I just love him.
05:52He can be a president,
05:54he can be a minister,
05:56he can be a member of government.
06:19You