Fareed Ali was 17 years old when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
One of the bright spots in his intensive treatment plan, which included eight months of chemotherapy and four lumbar punctures (spinal taps), was an offer from the Children’s Wish Foundation. They asked him to dream big and he did — the avid fan wanted to see a World Cup football game but the World Cup wouldn’t take place again before 2014, at which point he would have surpassed Children’s Wish’s age limit. He asked instead to see a Euro Cup 2012 game. He wanted to see the Netherlands-Germany match — they’re teams with a classic rivalry. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Van Persie, his favourite player, was playing for the Netherlands.
But Euro Cup tickets proved challenging for the foundation. They’re always expensive — good seats cost a few hundred dollars each, and at the point they were asking, the price was closer to $1,500 apiece. The cheaper ones had long ago sold out and Children’s Wish staff were having no luck tracking down the four they needed — one for each of Ali’s parents and one for the only child’s choice of friend — at a reasonable price.
Enter Ian Smith. Mr. Smith, who is on the board of the Children’s Wish Foundation, a member of Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson’s protocol team and a well-connected man, called Denys Sienik, second secretary at the embassy of Ukraine, one of two countries hosting Euro 2012.
“The embassy called everyone they could think of and finally spoke to the president of the organizing committee and we got our tickets,” Mr. Smith said. “Then they went beyond that to make sure we had hotel advice, people on the ground to translate. They were phenomenal.
“Members of the community just wanted to help Fareed out” Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Sienik was predictably modest about his contribution. “I said I was eager to help, but I needed time,” he said, and added that the embassy’s chargé d’affaires, Marko Shevchenko, also played an important role in finally securing the tickets. “I called everyone I could think of. It was all for a good cause.”
The goal of the program is to allow children with life-threatening diseases to forget about their illness and just enjoy time with their family, creating lasting memories. Children’s Wish took care of the airfare, hotel and ground transportation costs and even spending money for Ali, his parents, and his closest cousin, with whom he has grown up. “We’re more like siblings,” Mr. Ali said. “It was amazing.”
The diplomats at the Ukrainian embassy helped a lot, the young man said. “They’re very, very nice people.”
Mr. Ali, now 20, and living the life of an average young Ottawan, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in August 2010 and his cancer was declared eradicated in the spring of 2011. He returns for checkups every three to four months and, as he says, “everything’s been fine.”
