9-Year-Old Cancer Survivor Reaches Out to Other Young Patients

A boy with a huge heart and a smile to match, Aref Abdala has spent the past year dueling with cancer in himself and in other children.

In June 2010, he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and given just a 25 percent chance of survival. Today, he is in remission. But being cancer-free hasn't stopped the cheery 9-year-old from fighting the disease. He now walks the halls of hospitals, trying to help other young patients.

“Some kids are in the hospital all day, and they can’t leave their rooms,” Abdala said. “I have been there myself, and it is horrible. So I want to give back and make them happier.”

With the help of his aunt, Ivonne Meader, a 10-year resident of Seal Beach, he has given sticker-covered plastic shoe boxes jammed with books, CDs, toys and puzzles to hundreds of children fighting for their lives.

It all started last December, just before Christmas, when Abdala and Meader decided they wanted to help kids undergoing chemotherapy and other medical treatments.

Abdala was too sick to make the trek from his home in Florida, but Meader hosted an event in Seal Beach, inviting friends, family and community members to fill and create the boxes.

To her surprise, some 100 children and adults, including members of the Seal Beach Fire Department, gathered and assembled more than 200 boxes, which were later donated to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Fla., where Abdala was a patient.

“It was amazing," Meader said. "The turnout was incredible; it really filled my heart.”

This month, Abdala asked his aunt to host another event, which she set up and planned with the help of the Seal Beach Fire Department. But this time, Abdala flew to California to take part.

Meader said it was important to have Abdala here, making boxes and making a difference, going to hospitals and sharing his story of beating the odds with other young patients.

The plastic boxes, donated by Home Depot, will be distributed at Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach. Linda Muro-Garcia, an employee in the hospital's Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center, said the boxes “really make all the difference in the world to the kids.”

“Some of these children ... are so sick that they can’t even go to our playroom,” she said. “But this is something that we can hand to them, bring to their bedside. It makes all the difference.”

It also makes a difference to their parents and family.

“The parents are so appreciative to anyone who is taking the time to do something like this,” Muro-Garcia said. “No one ever expects to have their child in the hospital battling cancer. No parent should have to go through this; it is not fair, but it happens ... [so] this means everything to the parents.”

Abdala said his struggle with cancer wasn't easy, but credited his parents for allowing him to continue living a somewhat normal childhood.

“My dad and mom allowed me to live my life,” he said. “Sometimes I wanted to stay at home and relax, and they did what I asked—and sometimes I wanted to play outside and we did that. We just continued on.”

It was a family friend's answer to the most difficult question — why? — that guided Abdala's attitude, he said.

“My mom and dad were having a party at our house, and I was crying in my room; I was in a lot of pain,” he said. “Someone knocked on my door, and it was one of my dad’s friends. He came into my room and told me, ‘It’s OK that you have cancer.’ Then I started crying harder because I was sad, and I didn’t understand why—out of all the kids in the world—I had to have cancer. But he told me it was because I was special.”

At that moment, Abdala said he understood he couldn’t take anything for granted and decided to just have fun and live life.

“I just want kids to know that they should just enjoy the things they have in life,” he said. “Every kid should have fun and enjoy themselves because there are kids out there in hospitals that can’t.”