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Hello Batman, bye-bye cancer

Dubai - On Int'l Childhood Cancer Day, Khaleej Times shows how early detection can beat the disease.

For a young boy, 12-year-old Mohammed Ismail has achieved two pretty remarkable things in life. He has met one of his biggest heroes, Batman, and he has defeated childhood cancer.

To mark International Childhood Cancer Day 2016, on Monday, Mohammed and his mother, Amal, share their story with Khaleej Times to show others that Mohammed is fighting proof that early detection can beat cancer.At the age of 10, Mohammed noticed a small lump on the side of his neck. After consulting a doctor, the diagnosis that followed was a shock to his mother. It was cancer.Initially, Amal says she kept the news of the disease from her son."When the doctor told me it was cancer, I didn't want him to know. I didn't want to scare him."

Amal said he wanted Mohammed to live a normal life and not one labelled by cancer.After undergoing surgery to remove the tumour, Mohammed underwent two lots of chemotherapy.

"The white medicine was okay, but the red one made me quite sick. I vomited a lot," Mohammed said, talking about his two different chemotherapy doses.At the time, he was unaware of what was wrong with him, but he knew he was sick.

Now one year cancer-free, Mohammed knows all about his condition and says he feels thankful to be well again.Though his friends are still unaware he ever suffered from cancer, they often point to the scar on his neck asking how it came to be."Now, I just tell them I had an operation. I don't think many children understand cancer so I don't tell them," he says.

And for Amal, the biggest lesson learnt is simple."If you see anything unusual in your child, always get them checked by a doctor."

On Monday, Dubai Health Authority organised several activities for paediatric cancer survivors and their family members at Dubai Hospital.Speaking to Khaleej Times, Dr Abdelrehman Al Jassmi, CEO of Dubai Hospital and Head of the Paediatric Haematology and Oncology Department, said Dubai Hospital, Tawam Hospital in Al Ain and Shaikh Khalifa Hospital in Abu Dhabi treat majority of childhood cancer cases in the UAE.

"Dubai Hospital and Tawam Hospital treat about 40 per cent of UAE's childhood cancer cases and Shaikh Khalifa treats about 20 per cent."Each year, Dubai hospital treats about 200 cases, up to 25 per cent of which (50 children) may go on to need a bone marrow transplant.

"But nowhere in the UAE offers this treatment as yet. There is a real need to establish a centre here that specialises in bone marrow transplants, though. It is a must. We simply cannot go on sending patients abroad to our partner centres in Germany and the US for this treatment."

Dubai Hospital has also recently been given approval by the Ministry of Health to conduct studies and research into the field of paediatric proton therapy.Proton therapy is a medical procedure, a type of particle therapy, that uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue.

"This type of therapy will mainly be used to treat brain or spinal tumours, it is very effective but quite costly," Al Jassimi said.

The end goal, following the research, will be to bring the treatment to Dubai to target the whole GCC."This will not only enable us to deliver better treatment for childhood cancer cases, it will also benefit the health tourism here."

kelly@khaleejtimes.com