The development leaves thousands unable to get potentially life-saving treatment. The cancer unit at Mulago Hospital, Kampala, is now looking for $1.8m to buy a new one. The machine was second hand when it was donated in 1995 and has been repaired several times in the past. But efforts to fix it this time have failed.
The hospital gets 44,000 new referrals a year from Uganda, as well as from neighbouring countries including Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan, and round 75% of them may require radiotherapy.
For now, patients are still able to get other treatments, such as chemotherapy and surgery, but if they need radiotherapy, and they can afford it, they will have to travel to neighbouring Kenya
