Young cancer patients all smiles with Eid presents

Gifts help overcome trauma of spending Eid inside hospital premises

KARACHI: Words cannot describe the trauma that young cancer patients experience when they have to celebrate Eid inside a hospital. To mitigate this suffering, 39 children hospitalised at the Indus Cancer Children Hospital received toys, chocolates, clothes and fruit juices, among other items, from the people and friends of the hospital.

The cancer hospital is located within the shared premises of Bilquis Naz Hospital in Federal B Area.

The young fighters

In room 1, a young boy, Habib Ali, has been hospitalised for the past 20 days and is suffering from blood cancer. Similarly, 11-year-old Asiya Mohammad Junaid has been suffering from chest cancer and is based in room 2.

Moving on to the chemotherapy section, 11-year-old Mohammad Sumair, a resident of Sukkur, has been in the hospital for the past four months as he is being treated for bone cancer disease.

Four-year-old Mairaj Lala from Khairpur Mir, who is the only male child of his parents, has been suffering from stomach cancer. From Mirpurkhas, seven-and-a-half-year-old Saquib Hussain has been battling blood cancer.



All these children were all smiles when they received a toy car or jeep (boys) or dolls of characters from Disney cartoon film Frozen (girls). These young fighters, who have no hope of returning to their homes this Eid, bare their teeth with their hopeful smiles as they make origami birds.

On a mission

People and friends of the hospital took it upon themselves to lessen the trauma of these children as they spend their Eid away from home. They distributed items such as toys, fruit juices, chocolates and even clothes among the admitted children.

Taking the lead in this initiative was Tooba Nadeem Akhtar, who said, "We wanted to make their stay easier and better. We wanted them to not feel left out this Eid."

Fatima Hasan, who volunteered to bring 45 brownies from Pane and Amore, also spoke about the initiative. "This is certainly a very tough time for these kids," she said. "They are spending time away from home and I feel for them. There is a void that I felt needed to be filled, hence I opted to go ahead and do this small gesture. I will be here with them on the second day of Eid, too."

Another volunteer, Amra Alam, was narrating tales and making the kids smile away their troubles and fears, whereas her companion, Salma Habib, was engaging the children with origami parrots and helping them learn the trick of the trade.

Among the volunteers were those from Robin Hood Army, distributing chocolates, toys and clothes for children.

Dr Muhammad Shamvil Ashraf, the founder of the hospital, said he started this project about 16 years ago with Rs40,000 in hand. Today, this facility is providing care to young cancer fighters, helping them become survivors and giving them another chance to live. He explained that they are treating children not only from within Pakistan but also those from Afghanistan.

It was Ashraf's initiative, Children Cancer Foundation, which merged with the Indus Hospital to provide cancer treatment to these young children as young as one month old to as old as 16 years old. This led to the rebirth of Indus Children Cancer Hospital, which currently houses 50 in-house kids with about a 100 children in the out-patient department at the shared premises inside Bilquis Naz Hospital.

"About 8,000 children get cancer every year in Pakistan with only 50% of these children reaching cancer facilities for treatment," he told The Express Tribune. "In a developing economy like ours, [there is a] 60% to 70% chance of getting this disease cured. However, many times, these kids arrive very late at the facility for treatment, hence the delay in getting the requisite treatment." Ashraf was of the view that the government should do something to raise awareness about this curable disease besides creating health facilities across the country in large numbers.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2016.