Gaza: a cancer patient postpones chemotherapy sessions to apply for high school

 The decision taken by the 17-year-old Palestinian boy, Muhammad Badawi, to postpone chemotherapy sessions was not easy for him, but it was a challenge, with which he faces his ordeal, hoping to achieve his dream of studying software engineering.

Badawi, who suffers from cancer, was supposed to receive his treatment outside the Gaza Strip, and now he is grappling with strong will from the pain he feels, but he will finally finish studying the subjects for which he sits for exams.

But his decision came with the support of his family, given that the start of his treatment sessions coincided with the date of the high school exams.

Also, the effect of pain-relieving medical drugs sometimes prevents him from being allowed to study as he should. When he is in pain, he is unable to complete his day without them, so he submits to them to silence the pain, and surrenders to a state of relaxation.

Due to his special condition, Badawi sits for high school exams in a room inside Abu Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital, in the southern Gaza Strip, under the supervision of a governmental committee appointed by the Ministry of Education.

In 2019, the boy, "Mohammed", developed a rare tumor in the pelvis, affecting children between the ages of 13 and 15, and caused erosion of the bones of the right side of the pelvis, according to his father, Omar.

According to the father, after Badawi underwent chemotherapy and the necessary medications, and surgeries during which the pelvic bones and the right foot were removed, the Palestinian boy recovered in 2020, and then underwent physical therapy to return to movement and walking again.

But this disease returned to change Badawi's life, and caused a new health setback for him, since July 2021, without knowing the reason, until the disease was re-discovered in May 2022.

With the discovery of the disease, Badawi started a new treatment according to a new protocol, but he postponed this treatment, especially chemical sessions, for the duration of the high school exams.

His father says: "When he is in pain, he takes strong analgesic drugs, which causes him to become sluggish and drowsy."

He pointed out that he was taking his first steps in realizing his dream, by studying English in a center specialized in that, and until he became ill, he reached the ninth level of the language.

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