How Alice Hope Banga’s struggle with cancer led her to beautiful beginning
In a quiet hill in Namugongo stands a medical centre built not just with bricks and equipment, but with conviction. Its name is Spes, and for its founder, Dr Alice Hope Banga, hope is not a slogan. It is survival.
It is alive and practical. It is strategy. It is service. Born on November 21, 1959 in Rukungiri District, Dr Banga’s professional path did not begin in human medicine. In 1984, she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Medicine from Makerere University and joined public service, where she worked for about 15 years.
Those were transformative years for Uganda, as the government restructured key sectors, including liberalizing the supply of veterinary drugs and inputs. Where others saw bureaucratic reform, however, Banga saw opportunity and expanded her craft from just treating animals, to investing in veterinary medicines.
In 1995, together with colleagues, notably Edward Muhigirwa, a chemist, Banga co-founded ERAM Uganda Limited, a company that has since grown into a respected supplier of veterinary medicines, vaccines, and agricultural inputs, while also providing extension services to farmers across Uganda.
ERAM marked its 30th anniversary last year in November, a milestone that reflects three decades of steady growth and resilience in the Animal Health care sector. Banga’s leadership extended beyond business.
For more than 15 years, she served as a member and treasurer of the Uganda Veterinary Association, contributing to the professional development of the field she first called home. A defining chapter in her veterinary journey came in 1990, when she received a scholarship to study Dairy Farming in Rural Development in the Netherlands.
There, she interacted directly with manufacturers of veterinary medicines and observed international standards in production and distribution. The exposure sharpened her business instincts and strengthened her resolve to build structured, high-quality systems back home.
But life was preparing her for a different calling. Years later, after establishing herself in the veterinary sector, Dr Banga was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare cancer of the blood that affects plasma cells.
The diagnosis altered not only her health, but her horizon. She traveled to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai, India, for a bone marrow transplant. What she encountered in India left a lasting imprint, not only on her health, but also on the way she saw public health in Uganda.
Beyond the advanced technology and specialized equipment that gradually handed her a second lease on life after the Indian specialists successfully treated the cancer, she witnessed coordinated systems, disciplined professionalism, and a culture of patient-centered care.
Things hospitals back home in Uganda were not known for. She was struck by another revelation that would change her trajectory altogether: the hospital in Mumbai was owned even not by doctors, but by businesspeople who had invested in infrastructure, procured state-of-theart equipment, and recruited highly trained medical professionals.
“I was shocked to learn that the owners were regular businessmen who had simply made the decision to invest in healthcare,” she recalls.
“They constructed the hospital, equipped it, and hired the right people.”
That realization dismantled a limiting belief. One did not have to be a medical doctor to build a hospital. One needed vision, discipline, and the courage to invest with hope to succeed.
For a person who left Uganda desperately ill and in search of solutions in the southeast Asian country, she received so much more than treatment. Encouraged by a medical consultant in India, Banga returned to Uganda with a bold decision; she would establish a medical centre modeled on the systems she had observed abroad.
To bring the dream to life, she sold some of her properties and later acquired loans to operationalize the facility. Stanbic Bank became a key financial partner in the journey. She also acknowledges the support of her family, particularly her daughter Dorothy Twesigye Ainebyona.
My childhood friends, Dr Roselline Kabasiita Nyamutare, Dr Scola Bwali and Mrs. Hosea Tumushabe Kimbugwe, are still key in encouraging me to give this vision the best shot. The result was Spes Medical Centre, now operating branches in Namugongo and Kitintale.
True to its name, Spes (a Roman goddess who personifies hope) was founded on a simple but powerful mission, “To inspire hope.”
Dr Banga believes hope is not sentimental. It is clinical. It shapes recovery. It influences resilience. It sustains patients through uncertainty.
“If you lose hope, you may not survive,” she often says.
And she should know! Who travels to India for cancer treatment and starts hatching plans for investment back home, instead of obsessing over her illness? Yet, where other patients would have seen death and a bleak future all around, Banga saw opportunity.
Spes Medical Centre offers general medicine, pediatrics, gynaecology, laboratory and dental services, minor surgeries, immunization, family planning, first aid, homecare services, and community outreach programs.
Its operational philosophy draws heavily from the Indian model Banga admired, with emphasis on technology, structured ownership, professional staffing, and patient experience. Her vision is rooted in access.
Many Ugandans cannot afford medical travel to India, the United Kingdom, or the United States. By investing locally in quality infrastructure and skilled personnel, she aims to narrow that gap and make high-standard, affordable care available closer to home. Yet for Dr Banga, this is only the beginning.
“In collaboration with consultants in India, we plan to establish a fullyfledged facility, Spes International Hospital, equipped with more specialized technology to expand advanced treatment options within Uganda, and the region.” Her story defies convention.
A veterinary surgeon building a human hospital. A cancer survivor who turned treatment into transformation. A businesswoman who saw healthcare not as a profession reserved for medical doctors alone, but as a system that can be ethically and strategically constructed.
Dr Banga’s journey reminds us that institutions are often born from lived experiences. Sometimes, the most powerful prescriptions are written not on paper, but in resolve. And sometimes, hope is built and keeps us moving to achieve what we thought was impossible, to the glory of the Creator of the universe.
FACT FILE
- Dr Banga is a director Finance and Administration at Eram (U) LTD
- She is a member of the Board of Trustees Uganda Veterinary Association
- She is a member of the Board of Trustees GALVmed, and a member of the Uganda Veterinary Council.
- She is a Rotarian with Rotary Club of Kololo and holds an MBA degree of ESAMI.
- She is a Director at Spes Medical Center, a mother of three adult children, but has mothered many other children like any African mother.