Help to Save My Only Son from Blood Cancer (ALL)
Your kindness can give him the gift of life.
I belong to a lower-middle-class farming family in Bangladesh. After completing my education, I began working at an NGO. With my modest income, I was somehow managing to support my family—my mother, siblings, wife, and my only son. I had no savings, only dreams.
On 12th December 2024, our world fell apart. My 12-year-old son, Shouvik Dev, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), a type of blood cancer. It struck us like a bolt of lightning. I had no idea where to go, what to do, or how to save my child.
We immediately admitted him to Popular Medical College Hospital and then to the Department of Hemato-Oncology at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka. His condition was critical, but thanks to the compassionate care of the doctors (to whom I’m forever grateful), he began to stabilize. On the doctors’ advice, we rushed him to Tata Medical Center, Kolkata on 24th December 2024. He was admitted the same day.
Doctors initially advised at least 3 years of continuous treatment, starting with 7 intensive chemotherapy protocols over 7–9 months, followed by maintenance chemotherapy for the next 3 years. We followed everything with hope in our hearts and within our ability.
But after four cycles of chemotherapy protocols, bone marrow tests revealed that cancer cells still remained—due to a rare IKZF1 gene deletion, making the disease extremely high-risk for my son. The doctors explained that chemotherapy alone won’t be enough for his treatment. Now he must undergo Immunotherapy, followed by a Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) to treat and survive.
Here’s the harsh reality:
• Each immunotherapy cycle costs approx ₹70 lakhs INR (₹1.4 crore for two)
• Bone Marrow Transplant costs ₹35–40 lakhs INR
• Total estimated cost: nearly ₹1.8 crores INR (~2.4 crore Bangladeshi Taka)
To make things harder, as a Bangladeshi citizen, we don’t receive any of the subsidized treatments that Indian citizens get in Tata Medical Centre in Kolkata, India. Even Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital—being a government facility—refused to admit my son after reviewing his case, advising us to continue treatment at Kolkata Tata Medical Center, where he is now being treated.
Currently, doctors are giving him a powerful modified chemotherapy to try and reduce cancer cells in his bone marrow to below <0.001%. Only then can Immunotherapy and Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) proceed. The cost of this treatment path includes:
• Modified chemotherapy: ₹2–3 lakhs INR
• Immunotherapy (likely Blinatumomab): ₹50–65 lakhs INR per cycle
• Bone Marrow Transplant: ₹35 lakhs INR
• Total minimum estimate: ₹90 lakhs INR
Doctors say one immunotherapy cycle might work, but it may also take two. It depends on his clinical response. If he needs two cycles of immunotherapy, it costs INR 70 Lakhs more.
I am a poor father, an NGO worker, a man of limited means. I cannot afford this very high-cost treatment. In the meantime, I spent all my money and properties for my son’s treatment since December 2024. But I cannot give up on my only son. He is just a boy, 12 years old. He wants to live, to play, to go back to school, to dream. And right now, only your generosity can help keep his dreams alive. Please note that there is no medical insurance system in Bangladesh where I belong. So all the cost for my son’s treatment needs to be paid from my side as I described above.
I humbly appeal to you with folded hands and a desperate heart:
Please help me save my son’s life. Your contribution—no matter how small—can give my child a fighting chance. Your support can keep our hope alive.
And your prayers can work miracles.
Please stand with us in this battle for life.
