By Isagani S. Liporada
BAGUIO CITY – His pilot’s seat has now been transformed into a reclining hospital bed; his cockpit, the kids ward at the Baguio General Hospital.
He wanted to look out a window hoping he could see clouds beneath him but all the white he sees are uniformed doctors and nurses along busy hospital easements.
Days turn to painful weeks. His co-pilot, a patient who is likewise battling the ‘Big C’ passes away silently into the night.
He would have given up then, too. In fact lately, he’s been telling his dad Ernesto he is ready to trade his dreams of flying a plane to having wings of an angel.
But the middle school students of Brent International School Baguio just wouldn’t let Mark Anthony Viray concede his dream without a fight.
Last April 27, the Brent school kids once again breathed new life into Mark by sponsoring another round for his chemotherapy, raising P5-thousand from a benefit concert the kids themselves put up for their dear friend Mark.
Grade 9 students Erin Esguerra and Dian Magnual, president and treasurer of their class handed Ernesto what their class was able raise, relating that some kids from Brent Manila even paid for their free tickets when they were informed the show was for Mark.
Sure, the P5-thousand wasn’t enough for answering one of six sessions that make up a full chemotherapy cycle. A chemo session is about P10-thousand, after all.
But sportsman cum philanthropist Carlos Anton raced to Brent School to pitch in another P5-thousand if only to keep Mark’s hopes high.
Mark’s battle with cancer started in 2008.
The younger of two surviving kids of a widower and taxi driver, Mark looked like he had licked those pesky mutant cells that swelled his neck lymph nodes, May 2009.
It was SoshinKinderhilfe, a small humanitarian foundation established in southern Germany by Igorot karate teacher Julian Chees, which led other Samaritans in workingfor Mark’s initial round of chemo then.
After the first battery of chemo, the cancer cells disappeared until January, 2010.
His father was advised to have him undergo three CT scans and prepare him for another six rounds of chemo session.
Mark is now 13-years old. His dream and those who dreams he could realize the same are the only things that keep him in the fight.
To divert Mark’s attention from boredom and pain, Brent deputy headmaster Ursula Daoey donated two game boards.
She egged Erin and Diane to convince classmates to donate or lend some used up portable digital game device as a substitute for a flight simulator.
For now, while the Brent kids continue putting the pieces of the puzzle of Mark’s life together, piece by worrying piece, the boy’s dad is somewhere knocking on doors again.
Ernesto’s cell phone number is 0916 8560455.
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