RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Can­cer-strick­en Ma­yaro youth San­jay Sam­pat has lost his bat­tle with can­cer, just days af­ter he un­der­went a bone mar­row op­er­a­tion.

The news shocked many who sup­port­ed the fam­i­ly in rais­ing funds to send San­jay abroad for treat­ment.

His par­ents Cha­tram and Shan­ty are still in In­dia and are now des­per­ate to come home with their son’s body.

Broth­er Don­ald Sam­pat said yes­ter­day that San­jay de­vel­oped a bac­te­r­i­al in­fec­tion dur­ing the post-op­er­a­tion process and was trans­ferred to the In­ten­sive Care Unit of the Max Su­per Spe­cial­ty Hos­pi­tal over the week­end. He died be­fore mid­night on Mon­day.

Don­ald said they are still ow­ing for med­ical bills and are now find­ing it dif­fi­cult to foot the ex­pens­es of bring­ing the body home.

Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day con­tact­ed For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne to find out if his min­istry could as­sist the fam­i­ly in mak­ing arrange­ments for the re­turn of the body. Browne in­di­cat­ed that the min­istry would be­gin the process.

Don­ald con­firmed last evening an of­fi­cial from the min­istry had con­tact­ed the fam­i­ly yes­ter­day to be­gin the pa­per­work for the process of bring­ing home San­jay’s body.

San­jay was di­ag­nosed with leukaemia in De­cem­ber 2021. Pri­or to this, he had been work­ing three jobs to help sup­port his fam­i­ly af­ter his fa­ther Cha­tram was laid off dur­ing the pan­dem­ic.

On his last birth­day, his fam­i­ly could not af­ford a cake so San­jay blew off can­dles on a few Kiss cup­cakes. His wish at that time was for health and hap­pi­ness.

Just days be­fore he died, San­jay told Guardian Me­dia that he was ea­ger to beat can­cer. He said he planned to do a video ad­vis­ing peo­ple that no mat­ter what tri­als they face, they must al­ways “live good, stay healthy and be hap­py.” He al­so said he planned to spend the rest of his life lend­ing sup­port to oth­er can­cer vic­tims.

Any­one want­i­ng to as­sist San­jay’s fam­i­ly with his fu­ner­al arrange­ments can call 388-7029 or 715-1126 or 792-2134. Do­na­tions can al­so be made at RBC sav­ings AC#100096170742097 or Re­pub­lic Bank Sav­ings Ac­count #470021929731