1-to-1 companionship program for children with life-threatening blood disorders

One afternoon, I was fortunate to speak with Ms. Thanh, a gentle woman, a remarkable mother full of compassion despite the darkness weighing on her shoulders. She told me…

… It was the 27th day of the final lunar month before Lunar New Year in the Earth Dog spring of 2018, a day Thanh can never forget. She is the mother of Trần Lê Hoàng, 1 of the 16 children with serious blood disorders whom the Fund accompanies with monthly financial support.

In the middle of lunar month 12, while everyone was excitedly preparing for the season of family reunions, Hoàng developed a fever. At first, his mother thought it was an ordinary illness and gave him fever medicine, but 3 days later his eyes began to swell. The young mother was alarmed because many people near their home had kidney disease, and her little boy was showing its signs. She took him to hospital that very night. After 3 days, the local hospital advised the family to take him to the obstetrics and pediatrics hospital for more accurate testing. Her anxiety grew: it seemed her little boy truly did not have an ordinary cold or flu.

Out of love for her child, she continued seeking treatment. Two days after the doctors performed a bone marrow aspiration, she learned the reality of her child's condition. The child had B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (a form of blood and bone cancer). The sky seemed to collapse before the young mother, and darkness filled her eyes after she received her child's test results.

That was only the beginning, Thanh recalled those days through tears. In the early days, the doctors' needle injections terrified her child. The little angel could not sleep and lay in her mother's arms, startled at the mere sight of someone passing: ‘Mom, is that lady coming to give me an injection? I'm scared it will hurt!’ Sometimes the child was so exhausted that she drifted off, only to keep asking, ‘Mom, an injection?’ Even now, after more than 1 year accompanying her child, Thanh is still haunted by that question.

Can you see Hoàng's sunshine-like smile? Does that smile soothe the worries in his mother's heart? 

When asked, “What is your dream? What job would you like when you grow up?”, the little boy answered innocently: “I want the pandemic (Covid-19) to end so I can go to school. When I grow up, I want to work and earn money to support Mom.” Even after being asked several times, the 5-year-old had not decided what job he would do; his only dream was to have money to care for his mother. Ms. Thanh said that whenever her “little old man” passed a large, beautiful house, he would say, “When I grow up, I will build this house for you, Mom. I only want to live with you.” 

Since their child became ill, Thanh and her husband agreed to sell their small house to pay for treatment. She also left her job to care for the child. Throughout the first year after the diagnosis, Thanh stayed alone in Saigon caring for her child. Although loneliness and anxiety visited more than once, seeing her child's smile and angelic innocence reminded her to smile and keep going. After the Fund contacted and checked in with her to share her family's story, Thanh had much on her mind. She suddenly thought of many other families struggling as she had more than a year earlier. A person facing adversity who remains optimistic and compassionate toward others — truly worthy of appreciation! And in the hearts of those serving the Fund Giấc Mơ Đôi Chân Thiên Thần Fund like us, Hoàng and his mother are truly gentle, beautiful flowers, blooming in the cruel rain of fate.

Ambassador Lại Thanh Tú.