This seven-year-old could attend school only from this month

Abu Dhabi: Seven-year-old Mahad Haroon attended school for the first time this month. Yet, he will continue to live a life unlike most of his peers, feeling week and tired frequently, and undergoing regular blood transfusions every three weeks.

Diagnosed with beta thalassaemia at birth, these transfusions are his only lifeline for the moment. In order to be cured, he will have to undergo a stem cell transplant, and the costs of the procedure mean that his family simply cannot afford it.

“It is very difficult to see my son suffer, and I can only hope for the generosity of strangers to be able to give him a normal life. Doctors have told us that the transplant should happen as early as possible, but I do not make enough to give my son this chance,” Haroon Rashid, 47, Mahad’s father, told Gulf News.

Rashid is a driver from Pakistan who makes about Dh5,500 a month. He moved to the UAE in 1998, and has two other children — a 15-year-old daughter named Anab and a 12-year-old son, Mohammad.

After Mahad was diagnosed with the blood disease, Rashid relocated his family to the capital from Pakistan in 2013, looking for better medical services for his ill son.

Since then, Mahad has undergone transfusions at the Shaikh Khalifa Medical City, a public health care facility in the capital. The repeated transfusions have also had their effect on the little boy, leaving him with an overload of iron in his body that must also be controlled with medication. He is also unable to play for long, and he is smaller in stature than his peers.

According to a medical report issued by his doctor and seen by Gulf News, Mahad needs a bone marrow transplant, which is the only curative treatment for the disease.

“It is highly advisable that the treatment be done at a young age in order to minimise the risk of morbidity and mortality from the transplant,” the report reads.

Mahad does not have a related bone marrow donor, but Rashid says he can arrange for a matching one, following communications with a medical facility in the South Indian city of Chennai. The procedure will, however, cost Dh220,000.

“I have managed to raise about Dh8,000 but the remaining funds are beyond my reach. And I know many people live with thalassaemia all their lives, but as a parent, how can I see my son having to suffer this way?” Rashid said.