Quang Tri male student admitted to Da Nang Polytechnic despite having a hemangioma in the brain

Mom works hard at a small pho restaurant from early morning to support the family, so Luong has to help take care of his father who has terminal liver cancer - Photo: QUOC NAM

In a family of 5, 3 of them are seriously ill. A mother with a small pho restaurant by the roadside has to support the whole family, making the children's dreams increasingly fragile.

The storm made the university dream of student Bui Cong Luong seem to be broken, but a "secret" kept a little bit of hope for the student who desperately needed to be given the strength to go to school.

Father is seriously ill, both sisters have vascular malformations

Bui Cong Luong skipped breakfast for 3 years to save money for school, in case his parents could no longer support him – Video : QUOC NAM

Luong's house in Quarter 4, Khe Sanh Town (Huong Hoa, Quang Tri ) looks normal from the outside like any other family. But inside the house, there are the labored breathing sounds of Mr. Bui Cong Loc, Luong's father.

Luong is also seriously ill, with the same tumor caused by vascular malformation as his youngest sister who is in 8th grade. But while his sister's tumor is in her leg, Luong's tumor is in his brain.

“In 10th grade, while I was studying, I suddenly had a seizure. My parents took me to the Central Oncology Hospital for tests and found out that I had a large tumor in my brain,” Luong said.

Because of this tumor, Luong often fainted or had seizures in the following days. And to control the tumor, Luong had to follow his mother to Hanoi for a check-up every 3 months. After his youngest sister had surgery at the 108 Military Central Hospital, the tumor showed signs of recurrence.

One afternoon in early August, after returning home from a sales day, Luong received a notice of admission to the Danang University of Technology. Luong’s mother, Truong Thi Duyet, looked at the hospital bed where her husband lay, her heart broken.

“If I send my child to school, it will cost at least tens of millions of dong per semester. My husband’s illness is in the metastatic stage, which is the most dangerous stage. If he doesn’t get treatment, it will be difficult to save his life. So I think you should take a year off to focus on saving your father,” Duyet told her child, her heart aching.

Skipping breakfast for 3 years to have a secret

It was not until his mother could no longer support him to continue his studies that Luong revealed that he had been skipping breakfast for the past 3 years to convince his mother to let him continue his studies - Photo: QUOC NAM

As the main and only breadwinner in the family for many years, Ms. Truong Thi Duyet has had to wake up at 4am to cook for the small pho restaurant in Khe Sanh town. The pho restaurant is less than ^30m2 wide, enough to accommodate 6 tables, and is the only source of income for the whole family.

Over the past three years, three of her relatives have fallen seriously ill. She has been running around until her back is breaking but still has to borrow money to take care of the family's living expenses, her children's education, and the medical treatment for the three sick people.

The most comforting thing for her is that Luong is very studious. In 12th grade, Luong even took the IELTS test and got 6.0. This made the mother even more heartbroken when she had to let her child drop out of school even though she had passed the entrance exam.

But an unexpected situation left this mother speechless.

“I have saved up some money. I will use it to go to university. Don’t worry,” Luong told his mother, then went to the corner of the house and took out a piggy bank wrapped in an old cloth bag.

Luong said that since 10th grade, when his father started to have coronary artery disease and then had an accident and had to stay in Hue Central Hospital for months, and before that his sister had to have surgery for a tumor, Luong thought that there would come a time when his mother would not be able to afford to send him to school. Luong decided to save money on breakfast to take care of himself when his mother could no longer afford it.

When you also discovered you had a brain tumor, you were even more determined to save.

“Every morning, my mother gives me 20,000 VND for breakfast. Only when I am very weak will I spend 5,000 VND to buy a package of sticky rice or corn to fill my stomach. Otherwise, I go without,” Luong said.

With 20,000 VND per day, Luong put it in the piggy bank. And only Luong knew for the past 3 years.

When he received the notice of admission to university, his father was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Luong knew it was time to use his savings, so he revealed his “secret” to his mother.

Holding the stack of change her child had saved for the past 3 years, Ms. Duyệt felt her chest tighten. It was more than 13 million VND but it contained her child's hope of continuing to go to school. "I often tell my child that no matter how hard it is, I will try to give him enough food and clothes. But I never expected my child to choose to skip breakfast to save money to go to school like that," Ms. Duyệt's eyes filled with tears.

The "Giving Strength to School" Scholarship lights up a ray of hope

In his free time, Luong still goes to his mother's pho restaurant to help with the serving - Photo: QUOC NAM

When we came to find Luong, the mother and son were preparing to get in the car to go back to the Central Oncology Hospital in Hanoi for a follow-up examination.

This journey has been repeated every 3 months for the past 3 years. The news that made mother and son could not contain their joy after this re-examination: The tumor in Luong's brain has shown signs of shrinking, from more than 2cm in length to only more than 1cm.

“The tumor getting smaller means my chances of pursuing my dream of becoming an aerospace engineer are greater,” Luong said.

Mr. Bui Cong Loc, Luong's father, was the happiest person. He said the joy in his heart was doubled. Because deep down, this father, who is getting thinner every day due to metastatic liver cancer, always feels guilty. "If I hadn't fallen ill at that time, my son's dream of going to university would not have been so shaky," Mr. Loc smiled happily.

Mr. Le Chi Thong, principal of Huong Hoa High School, said that every year he has introduced to the program "Tiep suc den truong" some of the school's students who have overcome difficulties. Many students later, thanks to this scholarship, have more confidence to enter university.

But for Luong, it was not like the previous ones. Because the disaster struck suddenly and repeatedly, his family, although not a poor household, suddenly became a… poor household. Mr. Thong said that the school also understood Luong’s situation, so they also supported Luong as much as possible during his studies at school.

“Through friends and teachers, I learned that Luong has been skipping breakfast for the past three years, only occasionally seeing him eat a loaf of bread or a package of sticky rice. But I never expected that he would choose this method to save money for school,” said Mr. Thong.

Tuoitre.vn

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nam-sinh-quang-tri-trung-tuyen-bach-khoa-da-nang-du-mang-khoi-u-mach-mau-trong-nao-20240818161623118.htm