Hope Is A Wonderful Thing

I know I know, I'm a lazy blogger and I apologize. A lot has happened so far. From meetings to events to weddings to reconnecting with friends to gaming to cooking to (unsuccessfully) stalking Chris Hemsworth. I have not been busy, I have just been really lazy hehe.

I apologize. I have not given up on blogging and I will try harder. Lets start with this. I have a childhood friend whom I have recently reconnected with. 

Basically, for the past four years, I have not seen much of my school friends. I have no valid excuse for this except that I was going through some things. Nothing to do with them, it was just me sorting out things in my life. 

Okay enough with the sob story, as I was saying, I have recently reconnected with a childhood friend who goes by the name of Zaida. 

She's second from right. Yeah sorry I don't have a photo of her alone

Zaida's married to Le'an and they have a gorgeous daughter together, Lana. Seriously, I'm not saying Lana's gorgeous cause she's my friends' daughter. The girl is actually really gorgeous.

Err this is the best photo I have of the cute tot, Lana. Tengah kemas pelamin orang kawin.
At Raya, I attended Zaida's open house and hung out with Zaida, Le'an, Lana and the rest of the gang and everything was fine and dandy.

That's Le'an sitting next to me. Yeah we're all social morons.
And then a few weeks after Raya, unbelievable news hit us. That whole time we were all hanging out and joking around, Le'an had actually been diagnosed with stage four malignant thymoma. Yes, that would be lung cancer. Yes, at that age. Yes, we had no idea.

It was beyond belief how well Zaida and Le'an concealed their emotions. Zaida had opted not to discuss the whole thing with anybody (for her own reasons) and Le'an only told a select few. Soon enough the news spread and most of us tried our best to reach out (in our own ways).

We heard that Le'an had started chemotherapy but we did not know how he was really doing up till about a week ago when his right lung became filled with fluid and he was hospitalized. Doctors have been pumping out the fluid every day and they also decided to lower the doses of chemo due to complications.

At this point, I had decided to be there for Le'an and Zaida the only way I knew how. I started whatssaping him every day with funny stories of what has been going on within our circle. If only you could read our messages, you would not believe Le'an is suffering the way that he is. The man is full of life, full of jokes, full of hope and full of optimism.

And then a few days ago, they had decided on trying out an alternative treatment called Sevo Repa Germanium (SRG) but realized the cost is beyond their means. Not too long after, a bunch of friends got together and started collecting donations.

I posted a photo of their happy family on instagram and shared their story. I ended my post with bank details on how people can help. Another friend of mine did the same and by the end of today, we heard that almost RM7000 has been collected from friends and strangers.

Strangers. These are people with everyday problems of their own, families of their own and yet they found time to transfer money to a complete stranger in need.

I admit, what with the ridiculous stories of crime and mean things people are doing to each other these days, I never expected strangers to actually reach out the way they have today. But miracles do happen and today is a testament to that.

There is always hope. Never listen to those who say hope is an excuse for temporary happiness.

I saw Le'an at the hospital today and he is growing weary of being strapped to a bed for more than a week now. Chemo day in day out. Pumping fluid day in day out. No TV, only a laptop. No walking around outside. No sun, no clouds, no moon. Yet this man has no complains.

At about 1pm today he was in the middle of chemo and when I whatssaped him tonight, he was still in chemo. It is a terrible thing yet this strong couple can see so much beauty still.

Never give up on hope.

If you would like to contribute, donations can be made to Zaida's sister's account.

Maybank Joint Account
164605040397
Nurul Suhaida binti Badarudin
soonangbeb@gmail.com

Prayers would be much appreciated as well. Thank you all for taking time to read this post.