Child needs help to beat cancer
For most parents, a trip to the doctor with your child generally means a quick diagnosis for a cold, fever, or maybe even pinkeye, and a prescription for medication. But for some, what seems like a small thing can turn into something very big, very costly and very life threatening. Tonight News 5 brings you the story of a little boy and the people who have been struggling for almost a year to help him beat cancer. But the fight is not over yet–and they need your help to get him his final treatments.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Eleven-year-old Samuel Bailey looks like any typical primary student walking to school… but this young boy’s life is far from normal.
Alyson Baird, Mother
“In December he started with a swelling at his jaw. He complained that it hurts him a lot, so I took him to the doctor and the doctor said that it was the lump that you have when you have wax a corner, but it kept on hurting him so I took him back.”
Further tests revealed that the swelling was not the result of any simple infection, but reflected an abnormal mass growing inside his upper neck. The examination confirmed that young Bailey had Hodgkin’s Disease, one of the most common types of cancers that affect children.
Jacqueline Woods
“It is not sure how many children are suffering from the illness, but doctors have seen at least five cases in the past seven years at the main public health institution, the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Like other families whose children are living with cancer, the Bailey family has had a difficult time coping with the disease.”
Alyson Baird
“Sometimes I get up in the night and I check him you know. I am not too secure, although they said that everything will be okay. Sometimes when he says he doesn’t feel good, it lets me worry. I have my own complications, I feel sick sometimes.”
Bailey, who has been a regular on his school’s football team, suddenly could no longer play the sport he loves.
Alyson Baird
“Right now, he has a catheter in his chest and I stopped him from playing football because I don’t want him to get knocked because that could take it out of the vein. The sun hot would cause his nose to bleed and stuff like that.”
Bailey was frightened and confused. Alyson Baird was devastated. She feared losing her son and knew the family did not have the money it would cost to heal him. The child’s treatment would require a full course of fourteen chemotherapy sessions.
Dr. Victor Rosado, Paediatrician
“if he gets ten sessions out of fourteen session, what would happen is that he would still have cancerous cells keep hiding in certain areas of his body and over a period of time, they will multiply and he will have what you call a relapse. A relapse of his disease, which in most cases, relapses are much more aggressive, much harder to treat because they have had, the cells have been exposed to the chemotherapeutic agents before.”
The family not only struggled with how they would get help, but Bailey’s classmates at St. John Vianney School had to be sensitised about his condition. The awareness is critical to Bailey’s emotional fight with cancer.
Anita Wade, Principal, St. John Vianney
“A lot of times ignorance causes more hurt than if they know the facts. If they know the facts they may be able to know how to help the child, how to be kind to the child.”
“They understand why he cannot play football with them, but he used to play football and now he can’t go an play football. When he is exempted from sweeping the classroom, they don’t make a fuss over it. They actually cheer him on when he comes back into the classroom.”
The staff and students rallied hard and managed to raise money for Bailey’s first chemotherapy session. Because the full treatment is not available in the country, Bailey and his mother must travel abroad. Five months ago the mother and son travelled to Merida, Mexico where he underwent the intensive care. The treatment is radical and many children, including Bailey, have a difficult time.
Alyson Baird
“It lets him throw up a lot after he take the chemo, he has hot-flash sometimes, his fingers are getting dark, it’s because of the treatment the amount of things that he has to take. It let’s all his hair drop off.”
Now Bailey is on the last leg of the journey that will hope fully lead to his full recovery. It’s crucial that he finishes all sessions by December and family and friends have been working overtime to see that he is financially able.
Jacqueline Roe, Friend/Business woman
“First of all its a lot of work. It’s a lot of work and convincing the public that the money that they are prepared to donate is going to a good source is not easy.”
Businesswoman Jacqueline Roe has been one of the driving forces behind Bailey’s fund raising.
Jacqueline Roe
“This is a twenty thousand dollar fundraiser from beginning to end for the treatment. And so we decided that we really needed a strong fundraiser to gain about another eight thousand dollars, which is what we need for him to finalise his treatment. So we came up with the idea of a raffle and we printed the tickets. The raffle is being circulated all over Belize.”
Roe hopes this latest initiative will raise the money Bailey needs to complete the treatment and finally win his battle against cancer. It won’t be until three months time that we will know if Bailey is successful and no one is more anxious than the young patient himself…Why?
Samuel Bailey, Cancer Patient
“To let me get cured and I could goh back and play my football and so.”
Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
You can help by purchasing a raffle ticket or making a donation towards the Samuel Bailey Medical Fund at First Caribbean International Bank, account number 751356145.
