Indian Air Force Fulfils the Dream of 14-year-old
Cancer Victim
Chandan, 14-year-old boy, suffering
from cancer always dreamt of becoming a fighter pilot. He was undergoing
treatment for cancer and passed away on February 5th, the World Cancer day.
Though he did not become a pilot, the Indian Air Force fulfilled the dream by giving him the experience of flying a fighter jet in a Jaguar simulator.
On November, IAF gave Chandan his wings, stitched a small uniform for the 14-year-old and made him a Flying Lieutenant. Flt Lt Chandan was given a first-hand experience of flying a fighter aircraft in a simulator at Ambala airbase.
The dream was made possible with the support of Uday foundation, an organisation working for cancer patients. They spotted Chandan and his father about a year ago near AIIMS and were closely associated with their family ever since.
Girish Mandal, his father was a ration-shop owner in Samastipur, Bihar, and his mother a housewife. In two years, Chandan underwent as many as 22 sessions of chemotherapy, always hopeful that he would grow up and become a fighter pilot.
"He used to visit our centre regularly. When asked what would he like to become when he grew up, he would say 'fighter pilot'," Rahul Verma, founder of Uday Foundation said.
"Master Chandan, who had been battling with cancer for some time is no more amongst us. It is a sad coincidence that he left us on World Cancer Day. Chandan was a brave boy and a fighter, in that he was very keen to live his dream of being a fighter pilot, despite probably being aware of his ailment. We were fortunate to have been associated with him and be a part of his dream, albeit for a short time. His cheerfulness and deep desire to follow his dream inspired us all," a condolence message by Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha read on Thursday. Chandan was cremated at Samastipur in Bihar on Thursday evening.
His condition had been worsening day-by-day. "A month ago, he stopped responding to the medicines. He was on morphine for the past seven days. But every time I mentioned about the experience of flying a fighter jet, he had a smile on his face," Verma said.
Source: www.medindia.net
07.02.2015
Poor
Kids are Less Likely to be Nearsighted Than Their Wealthier Peers
A scientific team including Chinese government agencies and
universities and experts from Stanford University in California have found that
poor kids are far less likely to be nearsighted than their wealthier peers.
The study comprised of 20,000 children in China, 9400 students from Shaanxi, where students have greater access to books that require close-up focusing, compared to the poorer neighboring province of Gansu, where more than 10,100 students were part of the study. Researchers tested the vision of fourth and fifth grade students, aged 9-11 years. They found that nearly 23 percent of youths in Shaanxi has clinically significant myopia, nearly twice that of the lower-income province of Gansu, which had a 12.7 percent prevalence rate of myopia.
The study said, "Living in the middle-class area was associated with a 69 percent increased risk for nearsightedness, even after adjusting for other risk factors, such as time spent reading, outdoor activity and whether the student's parents wore glasses. Doing well at math, which requires intensive focus on a written page, was among the factors linked to higher incidence of myopia. Girls were also more likely than boys to be nearsighted."
lead investigator Professor Nathan Congdon said, "We're still on the hunt for a plausible explanation and think the results merit more study into whether using blackboards versus books may be partially responsible for protecting eyes against nearsightedness, and what other factors may play a role. What's important is that we figure out how lower-income Chinese students have avoided nearsightedness so we can use those same strategies to prevent more childhood myopia cases across Asia and perhaps even the world."
The research appears in the journal of the American Academy
of Ophthalmology.
07.02.2015
As we grow as unique persons, we
learn to respect the uniqueness of others
Robert H. Schuller
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