RABAT – A 72-year-old Moroccan Muslim widow has turned her house to a shelter for cancer patients after realizing how many people were forced to abandon outpatient treatment because of the expense of reaching the city and finding lodgings, Ilmfeed reported on Wednesday.

Losing her husband to cancer in 2009, Khadija Ayad al-Qorti founded the Jannat Association to provide vital help and support to those living with cancer as well as their families.

She cares for 15 women in her home, and rents a flat nearby to house a further 15.

“We could not find anyone doing what the people in this association are doing for us. Even our relatives could not take care of us because we are poor,” Hassania Khayati, 45, who has breast cancer, told Reuters.

Qorti still relies on her late husband’s pension – roughly 450 Moroccan dirhams ($47.50) – to fund the charity work.

A similar effort to shelter cancer patients and their families was done by an Egyptian butcher who opened a shelter for patients coming to Cairo’s famous 57357 cancer hospital.

The 50-year-old also provides meals, which he pays for from the proceeds of his butcher’s shop.

A 2017 research study by the ICO/IARC Information Centre on HPV and Cancer states that Morocco has a population of 12.83 million women aged 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer.