Zahra Laiqa
Zahra Laiqa's history
Zahra Laiqa's parents moved from their hometown (Dera Ghazi Khan) in Punjab to the city of Wah Cantonment, with the aim of giving a good education and a good standard of living to their children (an 11-year-old boy and a female of 6).
About a year after moving to the city their daughter Zahra became seriously ill, she was in fact diagnosed at the age of 9 with the hereditary syndrome of bone marrow insufficiency called dyskeratosis congenita. It is a rare multisystem disease, with an estimated prevalence of 1/1000000.
Dyskeratosis congenita is characterized by a range of mucocutaneous symptoms, including skin pigmentation abnormalities, nail dystrophy, and mucosal leukoplakia. Bone marrow failure is the leading cause of early death, along with susceptibility to tumor lesions and fatal pulmonary complications.
Zahra was immediately placed in supportive care in a very expensive private hospital in Islamabad (the Shifa International Hospital); at that time her father was receiving little financial support, but all of her resources were drained over the next two years due to repeated visits to the same hospital. The child's treatment was later moved to a local private hospital near her home. Now, to pay the bill for that hospital, the father works with daily wages from which he must also obtain the money to pay the rent of the house, the bills and feed his family.
At times he was also forced to beg for alms to be able to pay for the benefits in the hospitals where his daughter was hospitalized.
The father has now learned about our staff and the possibility of typing for free. Her parents pray incessantly for their daughter's life, hoping that the funds will come to cure her.
This child was taken care of by the mission of the Cure2children Foundation in Pakistan and we will try to cover all the costs of the treatment. The goal is to make her story known and try to raise the necessary funds for the care of her and other children in her same condition.