My name is Suseela and I am a single mother to my 29-year-old son, Aravind. 

Last year February, my son had to undergo urgent surgery to remove a very large tumour in his abdomen.  When the tumour was sent for biopsy, we were told what no one wants to hear.  He was diagnosed with Epithelioid Sarcoma (ES), a very rare cancer. Sarcoma itself is rare and epithelioid is a rare variant of sarcoma. ES of the abdomen is almost unheard of.

After the histology report, the hospital themselves had requested for two other opinions and they all said the same.  We sent the block to Australia, as my uncle is there and the diagnose was the same. We were then referred to the oncologist who told my son to do chemotherapy, for which my son wanted to start his treatments at a different part government part private based hospital. When we went to that hospital we were referred to the sarcoma specialist who asked my son to do a full scan again.  That scan revealed no tumours or traces.  So the Dr told my son not to do any chemotherapy as there is nothing to address and asked him to come every three months to do full scan and monitor.

May 2018 scan was good.  The next scan was done in Sept 2018, for which my son didn’t go for the consultation.  He was at that time doing a night shift job which disturbed his whole system and since we did not receive any calls from the hospital, we were confident everything was fine.  Finally, in March 2019 when he started having abdominal pains again, he made an appointment and went for it this time.  Only then was he told that his Sept scan showed a mass of about 3cm.

He then decided to go back to the first hospital and the same surgeon in case he needed to do surgery again.  He was asked to do a PET scan which revealed multiple tumours and 2 large tumours measuring around 5x7cm.  He underwent surgery to remove the large tumours and whatever smaller ones the Dr could remove on April 9.  However, the Dr could not do much.  He managed to remove one large one, which he said was actually the accumulation of small tumours and some smaller ones.  He couldn’t remove the other large one and the smaller ones.  So the cancer remains in him.

My son has been discharged from the hospital and is at home but is now weak due to post surgery and also pain and diarrhea from the existing tumours.   I am requesting for financial aid as I want to take my son to Singapore for treatment.  I have spoken to one Dr Richard Quek there and he says ES is not sensitive to chemotherapy and yet that is what my son is being asked to do here.  He has his insurance policy which has been covering him so far but the Insurance policy does not cover him for overseas treatment.  Treatment of this rare cancer is not available in Malaysia and I have no choice but to go for treatment elsewhere if I want to save my son.  I am a single mother and am self-employed.  I run a small boutique and offer tailoring services where I do the stitching myself.  I don’t have any helpers.  I have not been able to run my boutique for the past few weeks so I do not have an income now.  My son is also unemployed at present due to his health condition.

At this point, I do not know how much the treatment is going to cost me... but Dr Richard has said that the histology review already costs S$2,500.  Only after the results are out will I have to take my son for a consultation and we will know what we have to do.  The authenticity of Aravind’s case can be checked with Dr Robert Jalleh of Sunway Medical Centre.

People may say I am biased, but all those who know my son can vouch for the fact that Aravind is a boy who brings so much of joy and happiness to whoever knows him.  He is a good kid.  He has so much to look forward to in life.  This is a mothers plea to all the kind hearts out there. Please help me save my son... At this point it is a very humbling experience for me where I have to go down and plea for help. I pray I will be put into a time when I can return all the help that I receive now.

From the bottom of my heart I thank all of you.  God will always bless you all. 

Donation Appeals

A mother's plea for her son