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Disaster-stricken, pregnant St Bess woman seeks help - Diagnosed with cancer, mother desperate to reunite with homeless family
November 17, 2025
Lightning is not supposed to strike the same place twice. But for 37-year-old Gaileisha Jones, life has been one devastating strike after the other.
Fourteen years after her two-year-old son was struck and killed by lightning in 2011, the St Elizabeth mother is now battling Stage 2B cervical cancer, nine months into her pregnancy. And as if that heartbreak wasn't enough, Hurricane Melissa flattened her home, leaving her homeless just weeks before doctors are expected to deliver her baby boy by C-section.
"I was diagnosed with cervical cancer at six months old but I wasn't really surprised because I was having symptoms, so I knew something was off," she said.
"I kept going to the doctor but I was always told it was an infection. When I found out, I wasn't really surprised about it. I started preparing myself and I was maybe at about 75 per cent."
PREGNANCY, CANCER BATTLE
Now, her pregnancy and cancer battle are unfolding at the same time.
"I'm nine months pregnant and doing chemotherapy, I'm at my fourth round, but by next week I'm having my baby.
"The doctors say they will be doing a C-section and after six weeks I have to do an MRI. I was asking the doctors about surgery, but they said because the cancer has spread a little the surgery cannot be done. So I had to do the chemo and the radiation."
But even with all that, she has fears of medical complications.
"According to what they are telling me doing the chemo, the pregnancy and having to do a C-section, they say I might have blood clots which can lead to my lung being short of oxygen. That's the main thing I'm worried about."
BATTLING MELISSA
While receiving treatment at hospital, Jones' family was battling Hurricane Melissa in White Hill, St Elizabeth, and for almost two weeks she couldn't reach her three children at home, aged 15, 11 and eight, or her spouse.
"I felt helpless, I didn't hear from them for almost two weeks and I was really worried. When mi finally hear from them it came with relief, but sadness when mi assess the situation," Jones said.
"Since I got to talk to them and know they were safe I was finally able to stop worrying, although I lost my home. It was a concrete structure and it collapsed completely."
Jones knew she could not risk putting her baby in danger, by undergoing extreme stress.
"I didn't bother to put myself under extreme stress because they are safe. But I have been thinking hard how I'm going to do this and there's nothing I can do but lean on my family. I have an aunt living in St Elizabeth and thankfully she wasn't severely affected. I had asked her permission if I could stay with her for a while until I get somewhere to go. So she agreed to that," Jones explained.
"I love my kids very much. I can't imagine leaving them behind, that is why I have to maintain my confidence with all I'm going through, putting a smile on my face eve when my days are not going well."
BEFORE DIAGNOSIS
Before her diagnosis, Jones raised livestock to provide for her household. But illness has now made it impossible to continue working.
"Financial burden has really been on my spouse because I wasn't fully working. It has really been tough for him to be travelling back and forth."
She is grateful for public healthcare and a supportive aunt in Kingston, but the isolation of cancer treatment weighs heavily.
"Being at the hospital is kind of frustrating because doing the chemo, I'm placed in an isolation room not having anyone to talk to and always being by myself."
Her greatest emotional pain though is missing her children, especially her daughter with disabilities.
"She is diagnosed with global developmental delay. She cannot bathe or use the bathroom by herself, so she is my main concern while I'm here. My children miss me as much as I miss them and want me to come home. But where is home?"
Despite everything she has endured, Jones remains anchored by her belief in God.
"I was baptised in 2000, I believe in God and I believe he can make things happen when you have faith and pray. I hold on to my faith."
HELP NEEDED
She knows the entire country is hurting after the storm, but prays that someone will hear her cry.
"Seeing that my home is gone I really need help to rebuild. I know that a lot of people have lost and I really hope we can get help."
With a newborn on the way, cancer treatments ahead, and three other children depending on her, Jones fears being discharged into homelessness more than anything else.
