My sponsor's words 'carried me for years'

NB: The following content contains references to suicide and could be upsetting and triggering.

A childhood marked by loss

I grew up in rural Eastern Uganda. My parents were teachers and I had dreams, like any child. When I was nine, my mother became seriously ill. After a long and traumatic illness, she died when I was 12.

My father, devastated and jobless, began drinking heavily. My brothers and I would collect him from the roadside, but eventually he left our family. As the eldest, I suddenly became both father and mother to four younger brothers.