Testing times: Single mother seeks help for ailing daughter

Shahnaz’s husband disappeared a year ago, leaving six children behind.

ABBOTABAD: Some of those injured in the protest on April 12, 2010, over changing the name of the province to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) never recovered.

At least seven people lost their lives while more than 200 people were injured when the people of Hazara took to the streets. One of those injured in the riots was Ajmal Khan, the sole breadwinner of his family of eight, who was hospitalised with bullet wounds. Once released from the hospital, Khan developed physical problems, restricting him to the inside of his house and thus depriving his family of a monthly income.

“Our lives changed all of a sudden on that fateful day four years ago. He (Khan) remained in the hospital for over a month and when he came home he had not recovered properly and was unable to resume work,” says his wife Shahnaz.

She says the family was mired in an economic crisis when Khan went missing around a year ago. “We searched everywhere for him, announcing it in mosques and through the media but the police is yet to find any clue to his whereabouts.”

Shahnaz shares she has no idea whether her ailing husband is alive, but her children are still optimistic about the return of their father.

Her husband’s disappearance and the need to fill her children’s stomachs forced Shahnaz to learn embroidery from her mother and step out of her house to sell homemade bed sheets made with the help of her daughters. Although she earns a meagre income by selling the sheets, Shahnaz’s driving force is the thought of seeing her children grow healthy and finish school so they become independent and successful.

“Aisha Batool, the eldest of my six children, always consoled me whenever she found me depressed. She always made me feel like she’s my son, promising to help me get rid of financial problems that would keep me up at night,” said Shahnaz, adding her life almost ended the day Batool, a seventh grader, fell ill with high fever and body aches. Initially, Batool’s mother relied on homeopathic medication as she could not afford hospital treatment.

Shahnaz was finally forced to take her ailing daughter to Ayub Medical Complex from where doctors referred her to INOR Cancer Hospital. After conducting more tests, she was sent to Noori Hospital in Islamabad where Batool was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer.

“When they told me Batool was suffering from an incurable disease, I was shattered. I could not breathe and cried for hours,” said Shahnaz, barely holding back tears. She sought help from doctors who informed her of a private hospital in Lahore where she could get the best albeit expensive treatment.

Not having the required hundreds of thousands of rupees that doctors said would be needed for the treatment, Shahnaz brought her daughter back to her house where Batool has been bedridden for the last several months.

Shahnaz said locals have pooled in resources to bear the cost of Batool’s medicines but needs the help of philanthropists for her daughter’s treatment.

Talking to journalists from her bed, a frail Batool said she does not want to see her mother cry and suffer because of her, adding she cannot wait to get well so she can finish school and then support her mother after getting a decent job.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2014.