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HPEB doctoral student, Olga Ogoussan to reunite with family
December 2, 2008
Friends and colleagues of Olga Ogoussan have worked to reunite her with her parents following the return and spread of her breast cancer. A doctoral candidate in HPEB, Olga has been battling cancer for seven years through remarkably difficult circumstances, said Interim Dean Dr. Tom Chandler.
Chandler, HPEB Chair Dr. Ed Frongillo, and fellow doctoral candidate Alexis Koskan led an effort to raise funds to bring her parents to Columbia from their home in the West African Republic of Benin.
The fund-raising effort was carried out in cooperation with USC’s St. Thomas More Catholic Center where Ogoussan is a member, and resulted in donations of $12,000 contributed by more than 80 people, which is remarkable given that many are feeling financially pinched in the economic downturn.
Ogoussan’s parents, who are 67 and 59 years old, will be coming for about five weeks in mid-January.
“Our family wants to thank all of you, not just for what you did, helping to have my parents visit us here, but we want to also thank you for the warmth and caring you always show to us,” Ogoussan said. “We are humbled and touched. Thank you for being there when we needed it most.”
Ogoussan, who trained as a physician in Benin was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2001. The news came just three weeks after she arrived alone at the USC with a fellowship to study at the Arnold School.
It was a low point in Ogoussan’s life, she remembered.
What she was not prepared for was an outpouring of love from her colleagues at the Arnold School and a group of new friends in Columbia. They raised $15,000 to bring her husband, Kisito, also a physician, and her two young sons to Columbia where she was recovering from a mastectomy.
