DESPITE being confined to her bed due to severe pains from bone cancer, eight-year-old Faith Hutchinson is anxious to return to school. First she wants to continue her studies in pursuit of her dream to become a doctor. And then, she wants to protect her younger brother from bullies.
“I want to go back to school especially for my little brother,” said a frail-looking Faith, slouched on a towel spread atop her mother’s bed at their home in the Charlemont Housing Scheme, St Catherine.
“You have some children there who are always troubling him and I want to be there so they will leave him alone,” she continued, catching her breath between sentences.
Life changed for young Faith — a bright and active grade two student of the Victoria Primary School in Linstead — after she fell and hit her leg while playing at the school on May 17.
Because there were no obvious injuries from the incident, Faith’s mother, 32-year-old Georgette Brewster, didn’t bother to take her to a doctor for examination.
That decision, however, proved unwise two weeks later when the child started to limp and began to complain about a pain in her leg.
It was then that she was taken to the doctor and, following a series of tests, it was diagnosed that she had been living with bone cancer, or osteogenic sarcoma of the lower limb.
“In layman terms, it is basically a bone cancer. It starts in the bone and is very aggressive, meaning it spreads through the body rapidly,” said a member of Faith’s medical team at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), in a brief interview on Tuesday.
“It started in her lower limbs and after tests, it was discovered to have affected bones in her spine, thus making her lower limbs weak and affected her ability to walk,” said the doctor, adding that the disease may have spread to other sections of her body through her blood.
According to a letter from Dr Orville Samuels, another member of Faith’s medical team at the hospital, the disease has also affected organs in her chest and abdomen.
He said treatment of her condition will involve the administration of chemotherapy.
Faith has received three of nine treatments of chemotherapy already, but the cost for the medication is taking a heavy toll on Brewster, the mother of four, and her family.
Last Friday, while a big-hearted Faith sat in the bedroom talking about how prepared she was to protect her five-year-old brother, Brewster sat outside in the living room crying, desperate for financial assistance to cover the cost of her daughter’s treatment.
Brewster already owes the UHWI more than $500,000 in service charges, $40,000 of which must be paid by the end of September.
In addition, she has to raise money to pay for the other six chemotherapy treatments, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging test, as well as basic medication.
She has spent more than $1 million in hospital costs to care for her daughter already.
“If I should sum up everything, including the hospital bill, it will cost about $2 million more just to get her those medication to keep her alive,” said the mother, explaining that Faith’s illness has impacted negatively on her ability to send her other children to school.
“All the money is used up on her; is not that school isn’t important, but she staying alive is more important now,” said Brewster.
“The doctors are saying it’s a miracle that she is still alive, and because the initial three treatments have helped her to stay this good so far, they said it’s best we try to keep her on it,” she continued.
Young Faith is an avid reader, and participated in the inter-school quiz competition at Victory Primary. She finished sixth out of 42 children in her grade one class and wants to become a doctor.
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