Nollywood actress Kemi Afolabi has shared a deeply personal account of her life-threatening struggle with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes the body’s immune system to attack its own organs and tissues.
Her battle began with intense pain in all her joints, with pain she describes as far worse than childbirth. For months, doctors at LUTH gave her conflicting diagnoses, until she travelled abroad and was told she had lupus. She revealed:
“When I was down with lupus, I thought the end had come. I couldn’t eat nor drink. I was using oxygen to breathe. I already bought where I would be buried and I wrote my will, but God said it was not yet time to go.”
Kemi’s health ordeal was first made public in March 2022. By then, she had already spent late 2021 preparing for what she feared would be her final days. Doctors abroad informed her that lupus had no cure and warned she might have just five years to live, one of which had already passed.
Determined to fight, she began formal treatment at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland, USA, in June 2022. Since then, she has relied on daily medications, frequent injections, and major lifestyle adjustments, including avoiding bright lights that once defined her acting career. Kemi Afolabi shared:
“Lupus has no cure I am still managing it with medications. I travel abroad every now and then because of it. I get an injection every day. I can’t be under light for a long time like I used to when acting.”
Kemi credits her survival to God’s power, the steadfast support of family, friends, and colleagues, and her own determination. Yet, her journey has not been without emotional scars. She admitted:
“People were saying so many things, but the one that got to me most was when someone said I have been used spiritually.”
She used the opportunity to raise awareness about lupus, stressing that the illness has claimed many lives and that she never even heard of it until she was diagnosed.
