Help for bed-ridden Ugandan man

Mr Kyotera was bedridden for 15 years

A Ugandan man, who was bed-ridden for 15 years, has finally been given hospital treatment after a Rwandan woman heard his story on the BBC.

Denise Nytera, who lives in Belgium, listened to Gabriel Kyotera, 75, explain why he had defied tradition and had prepared for his own death.

Mrs Nytera said: "I thought that this was not possible that he couldn't get help. I couldn't sleep."

Mr Kyotera had paid someone to dig his grave after a stroke paralysed him.

Mrs Nytera said she had been "touched" by Mr Kyotera's actions after hearing him on Africa Have Your Say.

'Ready to help'

"This is a very noble man who prepared his death with dignity but I wanted him to see something else and to look at the people he loves," Mrs Nytera explained on the BBC's Network Africa.

I thought I would die before 2010 and so I put a dash. If I die now after 2010, I will have to change it. Gabriel Kyotera Bushenyi, Uganda Ugandan man defies tomb tradition

"I wanted to create some joy around him so that people could see that efforts are being made for his life as well, not only his death.

"My husband and I are ready to help whichever comes next."

Mrs Nytera's husband is a doctor and she said he will "follow up very closely" with the 75-year-old patient's doctors in Uganda.

Speaking from hospital in the capital Kampala, Mr Kyotera said he was delighted at the possibility of a new lease of life.

"I've got hope because I didn't know that I would reach here. If God wishes I might be all right," he said.

"I am very, very, very happy. God bless her."