Je­hue Thomas, the eight-year-old Ari­ma boy who un­der­went life-sav­ing can­cer treat­ment in In­dia, is back home and ea­ger­ly look­ing for­ward to start­ing on­line class­es next month and re­turn­ing to phys­i­cal class­es in Sep­tem­ber.

A Stan­dard Two pupil at Ari­ma Boys’ RC, Je­hue was di­ag­nosed with Acute Lym­phoblas­tic Leukemia at age three and spent five years bat­tling ex­cru­ci­at­ing pain.

His fam­i­ly faced fi­nan­cial strug­gles to af­ford a bone mar­row trans­plant but with sup­port from the Chil­dren’s Life Fund and count­less well-wish­ers, he suc­cess­ful­ly un­der­went the trans­plant at Apol­lo Hos­pi­tal in In­dia ear­li­er this year.

“I want to thank every­body who made this pos­si­ble. Be­cause of you, I am alive to­day,” said Je­hue, who re­turned to T&T with his moth­er, Suzie Gon­za­les, on Sun­day. 

He thanked his moth­er, who do­nat­ed bone mar­row to save his life, and Almighty God for a chance at a life free of pain and un­hap­pi­ness.

Je­hue is now look­ing for­ward to writ­ing the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment ex­am­i­na­tion in a few years.

“I want to pass for Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege and lat­er on join the army,” he said.

Re­flect­ing on his ex­pe­ri­ences in In­dia, Je­hue said he saw ele­phants and the Taj Ma­hal but missed the flavours of T&T food. His first meal af­ter ar­riv­ing at Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port was bha­gi and dumplings pre­pared by his grand­moth­er Mar­jorie Gon­za­les.

“I was so hap­py to see my fam­i­ly, es­pe­cial­ly my broth­ers,” Je­hue said.

His moth­er said there were chal­lenges and mir­a­cles dur­ing their ten-month jour­ney in In­dia. 

Gon­za­les re­called, “We did not know any­one in In­dia. There were some tough days but God was with us right through. When we went in­to the Bone Mar­row Trans­plant Unit, his liv­er got dam­aged slight­ly but the doc­tors fixed it. We spent two months in the Bone Mar­row Trans­plant Unit.”

She said the doc­tors had to cut her neck on both sides to get the bone mar­row cells that were used to save Je­hue and with sup­port from hos­pi­tal staff, they were able to cel­e­brate their birth­days in Ju­ly and Au­gust.

Al­though Je­hue had side ef­fects af­ter the trans­plant, Gon­za­les said she was grate­ful that he pulled through.

“He is 139 days post-trans­plant and he has to make 365 days be­fore he can go back to school,” she ex­plained.

Je­hue was al­so mon­i­tored for skin rash­es and di­ar­rhoea.

Mean­while, Su­ma­tee Ack­aloo, whose daugh­ter Sidara is strick­en with can­cer, said Je­hue’s vic­to­ry was in­spir­ing to the en­tire can­cer com­mu­ni­ty.

“Je­hue rep­re­sents hope for us in the child­hood can­cer com­mu­ni­ty. We lost three chil­dren to can­cer. We lost Ja­mar be­fore he could leave, we lost An­to­nio while he was in In­dia, how­ev­er, Je­hue cre­ates that hope with­in us that we great­ly need as can­cer par­ents,” Akaloo said.

She said a can­cer di­ag­no­sis gen­er­al­ly cre­ates im­ages of death in the mind of the re­ceiv­er, but Je­hue is proof that it does not have to end neg­a­tive­ly.