Chioma ‘Fruit Nurse’ Okonkwo is Laying the Foundation for Africa’s Biggest Fruit Clinic

In a world that is currently held hostage by COVID-19, which has taken the spotlight from other terminal diseases and a truck-load of secondary ailments, many people are returning to nature for solutions, paving the way for the natural medicine business.

In Nigeria, Chioma Okonkwo is one of the rising naturopathic practitioners who are challenging everything modern medicine stands for while advocating that there should be a fine balance between natural therapy and modern medicine.

Nicknamed the ‘Fruit Nurse’, Chioma is a registered Nurse, who discovered fruit therapy when one of her Cancer patients had been handed a death sentence. Her discovery gave the woman another chance at life. 

In 2017, she launched her company, Sparkles Healthstyle, which primarily deploys fruit juicing and diet to cure all kinds of ailments. The company’s impressive track record in 2020 endeared Chioma to the media as she has been a regular guest on talk shows on mainstream TV stations in Nigeria, where she passionately educates and propagates fruit therapy.

The Business Elites Africa team caught up with Chioma, and she, in this interview, sheds more light on her journey into fruit therapy and her plans for the future.

You were practicing as a traditional Nurse before the fruit therapy career came along, tell us the backstory. What led you into natural medicine?

My journey started seven years ago when I admitted a patient to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, as a nursing student. The patient had Ovarian Cancer stage 4. Fortunately, she was my care study patient so I got really involved in her case. My interest in nature began when the doctors said she had two months to live. I already shared a bond with her, so I wanted to try my best to see that she lived. I started researching an alternative cure to Cancer.

During my research, I discovered the power of juices, and I contacted her daughter. We started juicing and other natural therapies, and to the glory of God, she almost immediately started improving and lived for close to eight years instead of the two months deadline the doctors had given. 

That was how I discovered the healing power of nature and I started taking courses on fruit therapy and natural medicine.

Since you discovered alternative medicine, have you completely lost faith in pharmaceuticals or you combine the two?

No. As a Registered nurse, I believe there are some short-term treatment medications that work, but it’s not supposed to be a long-term treatment…

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Read the full interview here. It’s on page 36 of our latest magazine edition, ’25 Entrepreneurs & Brands to watch in 2021′.

Watch the video below to learn more about alternative medicine.