Thua Thien - Hue Seven years ago, Thu Uyen dropped out of college to take care of her mother who had stomach cancer. Earlier this year, she put her job in Australia on hold to take care of her younger sister who had the same disease.
In late April, Pham Thi Thu Uyen, 26 years old, in Phu Thuan commune, Phu Vang district, Thua Thien Hue province, was always by the side of her younger sister Pham Ngoc Han, 11 years old, who had an adrenal gland tumor.
"My mother unfortunately passed away from illness. My father and younger brother are men, clumsy and awkward, so I took care of Han," Uyen said.
Thu Uyen (standing) is taking care of her younger sister Ngoc Han (in pink shirt) at Hue Central Hospital, noon on April 21. Photo: Provided by the character
Uyen is the eldest of three siblings. Before 2017, the family of five lived by raising shrimp and fish. The work was hard, and with natural disasters and floods, it was easy to lose everything, but her parents still tried to give their three children a full education.
In 2017, Uyen was admitted to the Diplomatic Academy in Hanoi. After finishing the first semester of her first year of university, she learned that her mother had stage 3 stomach cancer and was being treated at Hue Central Hospital. At the same time, the family's shrimp and fish pond was confiscated. To pay for the hospital fees, Uyen's father, Mr. Pham Van Sy, had to work many jobs.
Feeling sorry for her father's hardship, her two younger siblings with no one to take care of them, while her mother was alone in the hospital fighting her illness, Uyen decided to keep her results to return to Hue, despite her family's objections.
After 8 months of being home, Uyen's mother's condition worsened. Before her mother passed away, she promised her mother that she would not drop out of school, and that she would work part-time to earn more money to support her two younger siblings and help her father with their studies.
Since her mother passed away, Uyen's family has been in dire straits because all their savings were used to pay for hospital bills. Her father's salary of 3 million VND was only enough to pay for her two siblings' tuition and daily living expenses. Hoping to have money to go to university, Uyen asked the school to defer her results for another year to work part-time, and at night she actively studied English to develop herself.
In addition to earning money, her decision to stay home for a year was because she wanted to take care of her young sister, her high school brother, and help her father with housework.
Uyen planned to return to school after two years of leave, but unexpectedly received a scholarship in Australia. Wanting to seize the opportunity, the female student discussed with her father to borrow another 400 million VND to cover living expenses. She said she would use this money to work part-time to pay off the debt.
Seeing Uyen's determination, Mr. Si agreed. To reassure his daughter, the 60-year-old man also affirmed that he would balance work and taking care of his two children.
Initially, the female student studied psychology, then switched to nursing because she found it suitable for her strengths. Despite her busy schedule, Uyen still took the time to work part-time to pay off her debt and manage all expenses while away from home.
In 2023, she graduated and was accepted into the surgical department of a hospital. The salary was not too high but enough for her to support herself and take on the responsibility of raising her two younger siblings in place of her father.
Just when she thought her life was turning a new page, at the end of 2023, her younger sister Ngoc Han's body showed unusual symptoms such as growing more hair, having lots of acne, chubby cheeks, swollen legs and stomach, and a change in personality, suddenly becoming sullen and quiet.
Her father took her to the district medical facility for examination and discovered an abdominal tumor measuring up to 18 cm. On December 14, 2023, Han was admitted to the Endocrinology Department - Pediatric Center, Hue Central Hospital for treatment. Only then did Mr. Si call his daughter in Australia to inform her about Han's condition.
"Han is very healthy, my youngest child is the most obedient in the family. Every day, he invites me to play badminton and reminds his father to go jogging in the morning. I saw him gain weight and have a big belly, I just thought he was growing up quickly because he was about to enter puberty, but I never expected that," Mr. Si said.
Thinking it was a benign tumor, Uyen asked her employer for three weeks of leave to visit her sister after surgery. But those three weeks turned into four months because after the biopsy confirmed a malignant adrenal tumor, the patient had a poor prognosis when she had seizures and had to be transferred to the Intensive Care Unit due to collapsed and solidified lungs, along with metastatic pneumonia.
Ngoc Han in the Intensive Care Unit of Hue Central Hospital when her health took a turn for the worse, early 2024. Photo: Family provided
Her work in Australia was unfinished but she could not bear to leave her sister alone, so Uyen asked the hospital for three months of leave. During this time, she stayed at the hospital so that her father could go to work with peace of mind, while her younger brother, now a fourth-year student at Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, continued his studies.
All the hospital bills and expenses incurred during Han's hospitalization were taken from her sister's savings in Australia because her father could not afford to take care of them.
Since taking the medicine, Han's health has declined, she has been bedridden, and her nutrition is provided through IV. The large size of the tumor has also made the 11-year-old girl unable to control her hygiene needs, and her daily activities are dependent on her older sister.
"7 years ago, because we didn't detect the disease in time, my three sisters and I lost our mother. Now I can't let the same situation happen to Han. No matter how tired or how hard it is, I have to try to take care of her," Thu Uyen confided.
Seeing the 26-year-old girl struggling and taking all the responsibility on herself, many people advised her father to take care of her younger sister, but Uyen refused. Because she could not let her father go to work during the day and come home at night to take care of her daughter, and she could not bear to let her younger brother postpone his studies and ruin his future.
At the end of April, when she received the notice that she had to return to Australia or quit her job in early May, Uyen was in a difficult situation because her family was short of staff while her youngest sister needed 24/7 care. But if she continued to delay going to work, she would not have enough money to save her sister, and sooner or later the treatment would have to stop.
Currently, Uyen plans to ask relatives and her father to take turns going to the hospital to take care of her sister so she can return to work.
"No one wants you to be in one place and me in another, but for now I need to work to cover expenses because my sister's battle with cancer is still very long and arduous. When I have a stable job, I will come back to her," Uyen said.
With the goal of lighting up the faith of children with cancer, the Hope Foundation, in collaboration with the Mr. Sun program, has launched the Hope Sun program. Another joint effort from the community is another ray of light sent to the future generations of the country.
Readers can view information about the program here.
Quynh Nguyen
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