Valbona Lengu is the mother of a 9-year-old girl that won the battle against cancer.
She shared with Euronews Albania what it means to have a child with cancer and what were the things that gave her strength to move forward.
Initially, her daughter started complaining about headaches. At the moment she got diagnosed, Valbona could not believe her ears.
Her daughter needed to undergo two surgeries. After being dragged for several days, the first was finally done at the Mother Theresa public hospital.
“We waited 20 days. The sedatives were no longer effective. She had strong headaches. Then she started to lose eyesight. She wanted to eat but she wouldn’t eat anything”, said Valbona in an interview on Today.
As a single mother, Valbona says her mother became her strength, along with her brothers and friends.
But she still didn’t have the money required for the other surgery so she reached out to Elvis Naci. He is the president of a non-profit organization helping people to collect funds.
Valbona’s daughter was among the lucky ones. She underwent a second surgery in Turkey costing €15,000.
After facing a difficult battle with cancer, Valbona lacked the necessary financial means to somewhat alleviate her pain through therapy, something she couldn’t afford for her daughter either.
Meanwhile, her brothers pay for the medicines so vital for her daughter.
Valbona admits that the only thing that made her look forward was hope.
“My daughter is much better now. She returned to school but is still struggling as the surgeries were quite hard”, she says.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), childhood cancer is curable in “80% of the cases when services are accessible”.
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