Hamza’s family didn’t expect that pain in his legs and repeated bouts of fever would result in a terrible and shocking verdict: a lymphatic tumor of stage 4 threatening Hamza’s life. According to doctors, his case is serious and chemotherapy is not enough as the rate of disease relapse is high. The only hope to improve Hamza’s condition is bone marrow transplantation which reduces the chances of relapses and increases survival rate.
Nadia, Hamza’s mother, shares “when we knew that Hamza is in stage 4 and the treatment would cost more than 500 thousand pounds, we didn’t know where to take him. We are a family with average means that can afford a good living but no extra income for covering the cost of such treatment. Thanks be to God, a nurse who is a friend of our family advised us to go to 57357. She asserted that the treatment is completely for free and they have all the capabilities including BMT. We went to the Hospital and Hamza was put on a waiting list, and they called us after 3 days”.
We started the treatment two years ago, and we have completed the long chemotherapy sessions. Hamza had a surgery to remove the tumor and the BMT procedure started. All of this was for free, but the problem is that there is a long waiting list for the BMT and the unit beds are limited. Currently we are waiting for Hamza’s turn, added Hamza’s mother.
According to Dr. Mahmoud Hamad, Hamza has Neuroblastoma, which is one of the most common adrenal solid tumors. It represents 8% of children’s cancers. The autologous BMT is a main part of the treatment protocol of high risk and recurred tumor cases such as Neuroblastoma where it improve the survival rate.
The decision of performing BMT for Hamza is already taken and the marrow cells separation is completed and he is waiting for his turn on the transplantation’s waiting list. The number of beds in the BMT unit is limited, and the economic crisis prevailing around the world results in increasing the treatment cost, meanwhile the BMT is inherently a costly procedure and requires special care. Hospital 57357 bears the cost of the entire procedure and it is currently pursuing to expand the unit by increasing the number of beds from 9 to 27, to offer a hope in cure to a larger number of high risk tumor patients.
Since the day we were admitted in 57357, with each and every visit to the Hospital, we gather as much money as we can afford and collect money from relatives and friends to donate it to 57357, especially after we knew about their intention to expand the BMT unit that will save Hamza and many other children’s lives. We wish to offer the project a modest contribution, shared Hamza’s mother.
Bone marrow transplantation is a life line for patients who suffer from a relapse of the disease after failure of traditional chemotherapy or radiotherapy failure.
Your donation in favor of expanding the BMT unit enables us to save lives of high risk tumor patients and to grant them a new chance at life.