A TWO-YEAR-OLD’S cancer journey and the “hero” NHS staff who saved his life have inspired a £165,000 pledge to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity.

The money, which will be raised by EG Group, will be spent on refurbishing cubicles in the hospital’s Bone Marrow Transplant Unit to create a more child-friendly,  colourful and comfortable environment for youngsters receiving treatment there.

The decision to fundraise was an easy one for the team at EG Group, as one of their senior leadership team has seen for himself what a wonderful and life-saving place the children’s hospital is. Imran Badat, who is a Senior Legal Counsel at EG Group, says his life was completely torn apart last year when his son Zakariyya was diagnosed with leukaemia, but that he can’t thank the children’s hospital enough for saving his life.

At just two-years-old, Zakariyya had been a typical toddler who loved nothing more than bouncing around at soft play and tiring out his mum and dad with his endless energy. But when the family returned from Hajj (a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) last year, they noticed Zakariyya had broken out in unexplained bruising, lost weight and had very little energy.

“He wasn’t himself and we could tell something was really, really wrong,” said Imran. “But even then, never in a million years would we have thought it was leukaemia. They always tell you don’t search the symptoms on the internet as it will always tell you the worst case scenario – but this time the worst thing did happen.

“The night he was taken to our local hospital in Bolton his lips were blue and he just looked awful. I remember our consultant sitting us down and I could tell from her face it was bad news – you never forget that moment.

“Zakariyya was then transferred to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and I think that was the toughest journey I’ve ever had.  I just remember praying and trying to convince myself they’d made a mistake. When they confirmed it at the children’s hospital we were on the floor.”

Imran who is also a parent to Mohammed-Iqbal, now seven, was told Zakariyya would start chemotherapy straight away. Zakariyya would be spending the next few weeks on Ward 84, the hospital’s oncology and haematology unit. But the injections and medicine were tough on Zakariyya’s two-year-old body.

“We couldn’t explain it to him so he didn’t understand why these horrible things were happening,” said Imran. “He was screaming in pain and didn’t know why these strangers were poking him and prodding him with needles and cannulas. I just wanted to take it all away from him – if there had been a way to give the leukaemia to me instead I would had done it in an instant.

“We just kept asking ourselves ‘why our Zakariyya?’

“I don’t think back then we realised how critical those first few days were, but we know now that the early diagnosis and starting treatment straight away saved Zakariyya’s life.

“The whole team at Ward 84 were just incredible. While it’s awful to see children who are suffering it’s also wonderful seeing all these little heroes who are fighting this horrible illness. We saw such inspiring children who showed real acts of heroism. But on the other hand you just think they have done nothing wrong in the world and they have this awful thing happening to them – it was tough to watch.

“But the staff there are amazing. Everyone on the ward – the play staff, the tea lady, the consultants and the nurses – they’re all heroes and without them we wouldn’t have our little boy.”

“We became friends with a Jewish family whose child was in the bed next to Zakariyya,” said Imran. “It was nice to be next to another religious family on the ward as we would talk about our prayers and God and support each other,” said Imran. “It was awful when we heard their teenage son had passed away. Every time it was someone that we knew, it was just absolutely heartbreaking.”

Luckily, Imran was fortunate enough to have the support of his colleagues at EG Group. They told him to take as much time as he needed and to put his work life on pause while Zakariyya got better. This meant Imran could be by Zakariyya’s bed-side from the date he was diagnosed.

“The comradery on the ward and the support I had from work really helped get us through that time,” said Imran. “We just don’t know what we would have been like coping without those special people around us – our ward 84 family.”

After 28 days of intense chemotherapy Zakariyya was put on a
more long-term treatment plan. And shortly before his third birthday, on 22^nd November 2019, he was allowed home. Thankfully Zakariyya, now four, is in remission and is under what is referred to as  maintenance” care. But unfortunately that too comes with its own problems.

“When he gets a temperature we have to take him straight to
the RMCH Emergency Department,” said Imran. “He has had to have a few stays in hospital varying from one week to three weeks.

“We’re still quite on edge checking he is okay a lot. “At the moment all of this is second nature to him, which is actually really sad. When he starts school that’s when he will probably realise he isn’t like some of the other children. He might feel different from them.

The small crumb of comfort in all of this is that he doesn’t remember the worst days when he was in lots of pain at the hospital.”

Their fundraising efforts will enable Royal Manchester
Children’s Hospital Charity to enhance 10 cubicles on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. Children who receive treatment on the unit often stay for about six to eight weeks, but some can stay up to six months. During their transplant period they are nursed in isolation, which means they cannot leave their cubicle and are limited in the number of visitors who can see them.

The unit currently has 11 cubicles and 10 of them are painted neutral colours. Children often display artwork on the wall to brighten up the room and decorate the cubicle windows. But with the help of EG Group staff, every cubicle, and two parent rooms, will have a more fun and child-friendly décor which will significantly improve the environment and inpatient experience.