Nyan, Age 10

Providing continued treatment and care for children with cancer during the political instability in Yangon City, Myanmar

I feel so sad about the diagnosis. In fact, I had never heard of childhood cancer. Frankly saying, I couldn’t believe the result at all. Only after the diagnosis was confirmed by clinician, I then accepted it.

Nyan was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) in May 2019. Accessing treatment at Yangon Children’s Hospital was a major challenge for Nyan and his mother, as it took seven hours, mostly by bus and motorbike, to travel from his home in Mon Division to Yangon. Finding the money to pay for his treatment was a further obstacle. Nyan’s father is a street vendor and this provides the family’s main source of income. Faced with catastrophic health costs following Nyan’s diagnosis, the family borrowed income at a very high monthly interest rate which they struggled to afford.

Now the family are living with relatives in Yangon and, thanks to support from the World Child Cancer/ City Cancer Challenge/ Sanofi Espoir Foundation partnership, they are receiving daily transport grants to get to hospital. They are also receiving nutritional support.

His body weight was 26kg before nutritional support. Now, his body weight is 28.6kg. It makes me very happy and thank you so much to donors and health care professionals. I don’t have to worry about buying nutritional supplements during the hospital stay and sometimes, get some nutrition packages for home stay.

The support provided is greatly appreciated by Nyan and his family during an extremely tough time.

I would say the journey to combatting cancer is the hardest time I have ever had in my life. Until now, the best way to cope with the situation for me is talking to peers and wishing the very best for my own child. My only wish for him is to continue the treatment in order to be free from cancer. As a mother of this child, I will do my best to make him cured. Because of the fact that individual healthcare professionals working at the Yangon Children’s Hospital are delivering healthcare services with limited resources, I really appreciate their great work done for not only my son but also children with cancer across the country.

Our warmest thanks again to Sanofi Espoir Foundation and City Cancer Challenge for all your support which is having life-changing impact on families like Nyan’s.

*Name changed to protect identity

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