JEDDAH: Eight-year-old Rayan Ali Othman was granted his wish on Thursday morning at King Abdul Aziz Medical City in Jeddah.
Rayan received his wished-for-gift — a brand new PlayStation 3 wrapped in blue gift paper — from the National Home Health Care Foundation based in Jeddah. It was presented to him by the foundation’s recreations activities organizer Wejdan Siraj Quotah in the children’s playroom at the center.
Quotah said Rayan was chosen from among children who suffer from the most severe cancer conditions and was granted a present of his choice.
Rayan, who suffers from acute lymphacytic leukemia, had the condition at the age of three and went into relapse a year ago.
Pale skinned and painfully thin, Rayan, as any child his age, was overjoyed and smiling for the flashing cameras during the presentation. His mother standing by his side along with his elder brother Wa’ael, who is attending his last year in high school, patted him on the shoulder.
Dr. Sami Filimban told Arab News that Rayan relapsed with the disease in 2007 and now he is undergoing chemotherapy.
Filimban, a consultant pediatric oncologist, pointed out that the general success rate for treatment of patients over the last few years had improved. It currently stands at 75-80 percent against the previous figure of 50 percent.
The National Home Health Care Foundation is a charity constituted, among other things, to coordinate with people with special needs, such as Rayan’s.
The foundation works with hospitals and with families that have children undergoing treatment. One of its activities is to ask a child in need to make a wish; then the charity works to make it happen.
Rayan’s mother was hopeful about her son’s health though his condition is at a late stage. His mother, who is nine months pregnant, said that a bone marrow transplant was an option to cure Rayan’s condition. However, at a cost of SR13,000, she could not afford it now — but hopes to have the transplant for her son as soon as possible.
