The girl's heart aches for always being the one who suffers the most.

In Thua Thien - Hue , seven years ago, Thu Uyen dropped out of university to care for her mother who had stomach cancer. Earlier this year, she put her job in Australia on hold again to care for her younger sister who has the same disease.

In the last days of April, Pham Thi Thu Uyen, 26 years old, from Phu Thuan commune, Phu Vang district, Thua Thien Hue province, was constantly by the side of her younger sister, Pham Ngoc Han, 11 years old, who suffers from an adrenal gland tumor.

"My mother unfortunately passed away due to illness, and my father and younger brother are men, clumsy and awkward, so I took on the responsibility of taking care of Han," Uyen recounted.

Thu Uyên (standing) is taking care of her younger sister Ngọc Hân (in pink shirt) at Hue Central Hospital on the afternoon of April 21. Photo: Provided by the subject .

Uyen is the eldest of three siblings. Before 2017, the entire family of five relied on shrimp and fish farming for their livelihood. The work was arduous, and they worried about losing everything during natural disasters and floods, but their parents still tried their best to provide their three children with a full education.

In 2017, Uyen was admitted to the Diplomatic Academy in Hanoi. At the end of her first semester of university, she learned that her mother had stage 3 stomach cancer and was being treated at Hue Central Hospital. Around the same time, the family's fish and shrimp ponds were confiscated. To cover the medical expenses, Uyen's father, Mr. Pham Van Si, had to take on various odd jobs.

Feeling sorry for her hardworking father, with her two younger siblings left without care, and her mother battling illness alone in the hospital, Uyen decided to defer her studies and return to Hue, despite her family's objections.

Eight months after returning home, Uyên's mother's condition worsened. Before her mother passed away, Uyên promised her that she wouldn't drop out of school and that she would work part-time to earn extra money to support her two younger siblings' education and help her father.

Since her mother's death, Uyên's family has been in dire straits because all their savings have gone to hospital bills. Her father's salary of 3 million dong is only enough to pay for her two younger siblings' tuition and daily living expenses. Hoping to have money for university, Uyên asked the school to defer her enrollment for another year to work part-time, and at night she proactively studied English to improve herself.

Besides earning money, her decision to stay home for a year was because she wanted to take care of her younger sister, her brother who was in high school, and help her father with household chores.

Uyên had planned to return to school after a two-year leave of absence, but unexpectedly received a scholarship to study in Australia. Wanting to seize the opportunity, she discussed with her father the possibility of borrowing an additional 400 million VND to cover living expenses. She said she would work part-time to repay 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, but later switched to nursing because she found it suited her strengths. Despite her busy study schedule, Uyen still managed to work part-time to pay off her debts and cover all her expenses while away from home.

In 2023, she graduated and was accepted into the surgical department at a hospital. The salary wasn't very high, but it was enough for her to support herself and take on the responsibility of raising her two younger siblings in place of their father.

Just when it seemed her life was turning a new page, at the end of 2023, Ngoc Han's younger sister began experiencing unusual symptoms such as increased hair growth, acne breakouts, puffy cheeks, swollen legs and abdomen, and a change in personality, suddenly becoming withdrawn and less talkative.

The girl was taken by her father to a district medical facility for examination, where a tumor measuring up to 18 cm in her abdomen was discovered. On December 14, 2023, Han was admitted for treatment at the Endocrinology Department - Pediatric Center, Hue Central Hospital. 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 well-behaved in the family. Every day she would invite me to play badminton and remind me to go for a morning run. I noticed she gained weight and her belly got bigger, I just thought she was growing up quickly because she was approaching puberty, I never imagined," Mr. Si recounted.

Thinking it was a benign tumor, Uyen requested three weeks of leave from her workplace to visit her sister after surgery. But those three weeks have turned into four months because after a biopsy confirmed it was a malignant adrenal tumor, the patient's prognosis deteriorated when seizures occurred, and she had to be transferred to the Intensive Care Unit due to lung collapse and consolidation, along with metastatic pneumonia.

Ngoc Han was in the Intensive Care Unit of Hue Central Hospital when her health deteriorated, in early 2024. Photo: Provided by the family.

Although her work in Australia was unfinished, Uyen couldn't bear to leave her younger sister alone, so she requested three months of leave from the hospital. During this time, she stayed at the hospital so her father could work with peace of mind, and her younger brother, now a fourth-year student at Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, could continue his studies.

All of Hân's hospital bills and other expenses incurred during her hospitalization were covered by her sister's savings in Australia, as her father was unable to afford them.

Since starting the medication, Hân's health has deteriorated, leaving her bedridden, with all her nutrition provided through intravenous fluids. The large size of the tumor has also made it impossible for the 11-year-old girl to control her bodily functions, and she is completely dependent on her older sister for daily activities.

"Seven years ago, because the disease wasn't detected in time, my three sisters and I lost our mother. Now, I can't let the same thing happen to Han. No matter how tired or difficult it is, I have to try my best to take care of her," Thu Uyen confided.

Seeing how hard the 26-year-old woman struggled, taking all the responsibility upon herself, many advised her father to take care of her younger sister, but Uyen refused. She couldn't bear the thought of her father working during the day and then spending his evenings at the hospital caring for his child, and she couldn't bear the thought of her younger brother having to defer his studies and jeopardize his future.

In late April, when Uyen received notice that she had to return to Australia or quit her job in early May, she found herself in a difficult situation because her family was small and her youngest sister needed 24/7 care. But if she continued to delay going to work, she wouldn't have enough money to save her sister, and the treatment would have to stop sooner or later.

Currently, Uyen plans to ask relatives and her father to take turns caring for her sister at the hospital so she can return to work.

"Nobody wants us to be in different places, but right now I need to work to cover the expenses because the battle against cancer with her is still long and arduous. Once I have a stable job, I'll come back to her," Uyen said.

With the goal of instilling hope in child cancer patients, the Hope Foundation, in collaboration with the "Sun of Hope" program, is launching the "Sun of Hope" program. Each additional community contribution is another ray of light sent to the future generation of our country.

Readers can find information about the program here.

Quynh Nguyen

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