Raphael vs Hodgkin's lymphoma❗ The fight for life continues❗.

The interrupted joy of growing up

Seventeen-year-old Rafal was plucked without warning from the world that every teenager is entitled to.
This is the time when one should meet people, dream, try new things and live with the belief that anything is possible.
This is not the age to struggle with illness or confront one's own mortality. It is a time when the young have the right to believe that life is just beginning.

Symptoms such as coughing are overlooked by the young, hoping they will pass on their own. Only when something lasts too long does it cease to be a triviality.
That was the case this time, too. The cough, which did not go away and grew stronger every day, became the reason for a visit to the doctor. On August 13, a chest x-ray was taken. Six days later, the result came, and with it the suspicion of cancer.
As a matter of urgency, Rafal was referred to the hospital, where a CT scan confirmed the worst suspicions.

For further treatment, the teenager was taken to the "Cape of Hope" in Wroclaw. There, after a series of tests, the diagnosis was made: malignant granulomatosis (Hodgkin's lymphoma). From August 22 to September 5, Rafal was in the hospital, preparing to begin treatment.
He is currently undergoing his second cycle of chemotherapy and steroid therapy. He still has four more ahead of him, each more difficult, more grueling, but necessary for him to regain his health.

The power hidden in empathy

Confronting cancer becomes an experience that forces adulthood in a young man before it has time to arrive.
Raphael endures it all with remarkable calmness and humility. There is something about him that is immediately moving - a gentleness, empathy and natural kindness that fills the space around him. When asked about his dreams, he doesn't mention expensive things.
He dreams of simple things - getting back on the field, the sound of the ball bouncing on the dance floor, meeting friends and laughing endlessly.
When he talks about the future, there is a sparkle in his eyes. He would like to travel across America someday and see places he has so far only known from movies and books. However, his biggest dream is to get healthy and return to the life that the disease stopped for a while.

Today, we can help him do just that. Let Rafal and his family focus on his fight for recovery, not on the worries of everyday life.
Every support is a real chance for him to have a more peaceful tomorrow.