Last night, we took you to Dangriga Town to meet 6-year-old Jahziel Choj. He is the youngest client of the Belize Cancer Center Dangriga to battle and survive leukemia.
His milestone of becoming cancer-free was celebrated by the Cancer Center yesterday, and several of the other patients and their families attended that ceremony in solidarity as Belizeans who are fighting that same battle.
Tonight, we introduce you to a few more of those young patients and their families who are determined to win the battle against the illness, despite whatever roadblock that's in the way of their recovery.
They all have the support of the Belize Cancer Center Dangriga, and tonight we begin our exploration of what their support to cancer patients entails. Here's that story:
6-year-old Jahziel Choj and his loved ones aren't the only Belizean family which has sought the support of the Belize Cancer Center Dangriga.
Joining Little Jahziel in celebrating the good news of his remission yesterday was 2-year-old Alizae Tillett, a fellow peer from Belmopan. Jahziel is the Cancer Center's youngest cancer survivor, but Baby Alizae is their youngest patient. She has been receiving treatment at the Center since she was only a little older than one year.
Another of the Center's regulars is 7-year-old Maleek McKenzie. He is also another cancer survivor who rang that special remission bell a few months ago. That's when he completed all his chemotherapy sessions, and all his test results indicated that the leukemia was no longer a threat to his life.
His aunt remembers the days when the illness would turn even the tiniest insect bite into a sore that refused to properly heal.
Wasani Cacho - Aunt of Maleek McKenzie
"If you can look closely, back when he got sick, this was a fly bite, and it out, yes, into a sore for a long while, and that it left him with because his defense was extremely low. He was doing okay. He's still doing okay. February this year, he rang the bell. So, he's presently in remission from the leukemia."
Since it opened its doors in 2008, the Belize Cancer Center Dangriga has become a lifeline for patients like Maleek, Jahziel, and Alizae. They have treated over 2,300 unique cases with a tailored approach for each patient.
One of the Cancer Center's guiding principles is to make all aspects of the treatment journey as easy and stress-free as possible for the patient and their loved ones.
Juan Choj certainly found out how challenging and complex that journey could become when his son, Jahziel, needed to reach Merida, Mexico, for emergency medical care and diagnostic testing. Unfortunately for the Choj family, they had the additional challenge of restricted travel worldwide during the height of the COVID pandemic, when countries closed their borders for public health reasons.
Juan Choj - Father of Jahziel
"I was scared. As parents, we don't know what's going on. We don't have a proper diagnosis, and the only thing that the doctors could say is to try to find help outside. Try to find an oncologist. By this time, COVID hits. There's a national lockdown. We can't come out of the country. His health is deteriorating really fast. I could see him not doing well, and I don't know what to do or where to go. But, as a parent, you know, you don't give up. I started researching here, asking questions over here and calling all over the place. And finally, I got in contact with a doctor in Merida, who brought us hope. He said he might know what the problem is. But he needed to see Jahziel there, and we had to apply to get out of the country because of the COVID lockdown. There was nowhere we could just come out."
Tomorrow, we'll have part two of this story. That's when we'll show you how the Belize Cancer Center Dangriga does its best to look after the medical needs of each patient, no matter how complex the solution may be.
