Dubai: A school in Sharjah has raised Dh300,000 for a Grade 3 student suffering from cancer and is undergoing treatment in India.
Following a Gulf News report about an appeal for the eight-year-old boy, Avinash Jayaraman, suffering from leukaemia, his Delhi Private School, Sharjah raised the money for his treatment.
Jayaraman’s parents had appealed for help for chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant for the child who is under treatment at Christian Medical Hospital in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
The boy was diagnosed with T-cells Lymphoma in January and has been in India for chemotherapy and treatment since then. He has been advised a bone-marrow transplant. The costs of his complete treatment, including chemotherapy and subsequent surgeries and the bone marrow transplant to be carried out later will cost around Dh1 million. With the contribution from the school and the funds the parents received earlier from other UAE residents following the publication of the Gulf News report, they have managed to raise around Dh500,000 so far.
Dr Vandana Marwaha, principal of Delhi Private School, told Gulf News: “Following the report, we received an overwhelming response from students, teachers, parents and even strangers who contributed funds. We were able to collect this amount and have already sent a cheque to the father’s account. We continue to pray for our student’s good health and hope he gets well soon and joins back.”
R. Jayaraman and Shwetha, the parents of Avinash are speechless with the magnanimous gesture from the people of the UAE. “The generosity of the school and complete strangers, who have never met my son, reaching out to us has reaffirmed my faith in humanity. My son is indeed blessed and we are more than grateful. This help and support has raised my son’s morale so much that he is actually telling the disease to get out of this body as he cannot wait to get back to school,” said the mother.
However, the treatment is going to be long drawn out and the parents are preparing themselves for the long haul. “Avinash will need a new bone marrow to sustain his health once all these highly intensive chemotherapies are over. Right now, he is too weak to undergo a bone-marrow transplant. Besides, we have not been able to find an exact match in three international registries but the doctors said that our bone marrows are a 50 per cent match and one of us will be able to donate to him. I am hoping and praying it’s me as this will be the best gift I can give to my child. In the meanwhile, his right hand which had a swelling and tumour and was operated on has been nerve damaged and he will need some reconstruction work on that. So it looks like a long journey for us, but our hopes and resolve are strengthened with the prayers and best wishes of so many people who called from the UAE. My son is determined to battle this,” added Shwetha.
Marwaha added that many of Avinash’s classmates are in touch with him. “It’s not just the act of raising funds for his treatment, but all our students are praying very hard for his recovery and the little boy is so happy to know that his friends are doing this for him. He is delighted and tells them he will get well soon and return to his class. We just hope and pray that happens soon.”
