Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Joe Golder, Agency: Newsflash
This poor eight-year-old boy with skin cancer and tumours covering most of his face leaving him almost blind in one eye is to receive specialist care after the Turkish authorities vowed to help.
Salih, 8, the youngest of three children, was diagnosed with a mass over his left eye when he was two years old which was surgically removed.
However, new masses began to form on his face and the young boy was then diagnosed with skin cancer.
In total, Salih has undergone 10 operations on his face, but his right eye remains completely closed by the growing mass. The poor boy also has visual impairment in his left eye.
Salih, who has been treated by doctors at the Hacettepe University Medical School Internal Medicine in the Turkish capital Ankara, was put on a six-month medication course.
The boy’s father Idris Igneci, who is struggling financially after leaving his job as a chef, moved the family to the village of Asagi Yenice in the province of Erzurum so he could buy 12 boxes of medicine valued at TRY 2,600 (GBP 252).
The dad started to work as a shepherd in the rural area and his other two sons Firat, 12, and Haktan, 9, help him out.
Meanwhile, Salih cannot leave the one-bedroom house due to sun allergies and spends most of his time watching TV in a dark room that his mother adapted with thick curtains.
The family has recently received good news regarding the boy’s treatment after the Turkish Ministry of Health and provincial authorities, along with philanthropists and donors, agreed to intervene.
Igneci said his son’s morale has been lifted by the welcome intervention by the health authorities and said that they are even receiving messages of goodwill from people all over the world.
Meanwhile, little Salih told local media: “I really miss cycling, running, and playing outside the most. I am so pleased to be getting help.”
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