Noel still lives in hope

Its been eight years since Noel Lochan was diagnosed with a mysterious skin cancer, which has left scars and painful pus-filled boils to erupt on his body. However, despite this adversity, Lochan still hopes doctors will find a cure for his ailment. It’s a wish that Lochan has made for 2012. In an interview yesterday, he said he spent the Christmas holidays at Ward 12 of the San Fernando General Hospital after one of the boils burst under his arm. “On Boxing Day morning when I got up, I started to feel pain under my arm and I told mom that I can’t take the pain. They called an ambulance and the doctors kept me at the hospital. They also told me that I had a chest infection,” Lochan said.

 

Since his hospitalisation, he said he had been getting excruciating headaches, dizziness and shortness of breath. He has also been spitting up blood. “It is probably because of the chest infection. I worked hard before the holidays trying to get some money selling brooms,” Lochan said. Since he was relieved of his temporary job at the South West Regional Health Authority as a hospital attendant, Lochan said he had been making coconut leaves brooms and selling them at Matilda Junction in Princes Town. “My cousin cuts down the coconut branch and I clean it out. At least I have some money when I sell the brooms,” Lochan said. 

 

He explained that next week, he has to go to St James to get radiation for the cancer. Lochan said he swallows three tablets, three times daily to deal with the cancer. “I lost a lot of weight but at least I am alive,” he smiled, adding that he hoped Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar could use some monies from the Children’s Life Fund to send him abroad for medical treatment. Even though he has not yet received plastic surgery, Lochan said he will keep praying that God will cure him. “It is what I believe and pray for. I hope that in 2012, I can live a normal life,” Lochan said. Lochan’s plight was first highlighted by the T&T Guardian in April 2004, when police rescued him from his home. He had been hiding in the house for three years. Anyone wanting to assist Lochan can contact him at 779-0496.