OF COURAGE & RESILIENCE

“I love spending time in school here, it makes it all easy,” says Sibghatullah a 14-year-old battling cancer with all the courage in him.

“I made few very close friends here, we talk and it makes us feel like a family,” he continued with a lit-up face, forgetting about the urine bags hung on his sides, as he talks about ‘Indus kay Sitary’; a school set up within Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHHN) which provides free-of-cost education to children fighting from a long-term illness.

Sibghatullah lost a part of him after he lost his mother in 2020. Drowned in sorrow, he suppressed a sharp pain in his pelvic area for a month. He was forced to inform his family when he couldn’t bear the pain and it completely handicapped his mobility.

His older brother — the lone breadwinner of the family of five — took him for a checkup, but due to the unavailability of medical expertise available in the remote village of Baluchistan, they were forced to look elsewhere. After hearing about the great work of IHHN, Sibghatullah came to The Indus Hospital in Karachi, with the hope to be healed.

Upon his arrival, he was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma (Bone Cancer) and ever since has been receiving the right medical attention, counseling, and rest. After going through so much, he is full of nothing but gratitude for the hospital, staff, and his doctors.

“I cannot do anything right now but I’m hopeful that one day when I’m back on my feet I can help and give back to The Indus Hospital.”

*Sibghatullah passed away in March 2021. His story was used with his parents’ permission.