By Lucia Zeballos | KAM
Ariel's story reflects the reality of childhood cancer in Chile. Children who must leave their homes and families and move hundreds of miles away in search of the right cancer treatment. Years of chemotherapy, relapses and the pursuit for a compatible donor.
Since he was two years old, Ariel has been facing cancer, with the support of his family, foundations such as Nuestros Hijos and the State through the PINDA Network. Ariel is now 11 years old and is still being treated at the Children's Oncology Unit of the Regional Hospital of Concepción, where he is also studying at an in-hospital school for children with complex long-stay diseases. From there he was referred to the Calvo Mackenna Hospital in Santiago for a bone marrow transplant.
Ariel has no siblings, but he does have a father and a pet - Pandora - whom he misses very much and who are eagerly waiting for him in the quiet and southern town of Tomé in the Bío Bío Region. In mid-May of this year, Ariel came with his mother -Marcela- to Santiago, without knowing the Capital and with no desire to discover it. His thing is the countryside, the forest, the murmur of the river winding its way through the willows and the song of the birds in the morning. There, he has a secret rock, a kind of enchanted place where he likes to be, because he senses the peace and relief that cancer has denied him.
He spends his days at the Fundación Nuestros Hijos foster home reading Los Compas -he confesses that he has already read all the copies he was given- and playing with Legos.
Children like Ariel spend their Holidays in the Fundación Nuestros Hijos´s Foster Home, with your help we can bring them a little of the warmth of their homes and the Holidays Season´s spirit while they are away. Thank you once again for supporting children with cancer in Chile!
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