FORTY-ONE-YEAR-OLD Ricardo Bedward is counting his blessings after his daughter Azalea, who was diagnosed with cancer at age tw0, is now living a normal life nine years after.

An appreciative Bedward has, however, credited the work of medical staff at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee, United States, where his daughter underwent treatment, for making his family happy again.

“She is totally fine now. She has been cancer free since 2017. She still does her yearly check-ups with the hospital and they pay for that. Life is normal for her and there hasn’t been any disruptions in terms of diet or anything like that. She is a normal child. People need to understand that they can get help. It was a huge blessing,” Bedward told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.

After being treated successfully Azalea became an “ambassador” for the hospital, which raises funds in order to give a second chance at life to children who might be at death’s door and parents and guardians who are unable to afford the cost of treatment.

“We were lucky enough to get through with the programme. The hospital operates strictly off donations, and specialises in kids with life-threatening illnesses like cancer. When she was diagnosed they treated her for a year. Luckily, she was cured and we were able to come back to Jamaica. We still do follow-ups with them and we do some level of promotion for the hospital. We didn’t have to pay for anything medical, room and board or food. It was a huge blessing,” said the thankful father.

“She was my first child and she was staring death in the face [when] she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer. It is a soft tissue tumour and is very rare. To realise that she overcame that by going to St Jude, it kind of changed my perspective on life. She did a graft surgery which we were told had never been done there before,” he said.

“Because of that surgery she never had to go through radiation. At her tender age, putting her through radiation could have had long-term effects right up to adulthood,” the happy father added.

Bedward explained that the cancer was concentrated in Azalea’s lower abdomen, and that doctors told him that it is usually an aggressive form of cancer but if diagnosed early it can be treated successfully.

“With the correct treatment, it is fixable. Luckily we were able to catch it early. We were able to reach out to St Jude and they accepted us and got it sorted out. The treatment lasted one full year. I had to work so I went back and forth [while] my wife stayed over there with her.

“The same day my wife found out that our daughter had the cancer was the same day she found out she was pregnant with my second daughter. She was there pregnant in Tennessee, a place where we have never been and have no family and I was only able to visit her every six weeks for like a week at a time because at least one of us had to maintain a job.”

Bedward said after the miraculous experience with Azalea, he felt compelled to give back to the less fortunate and to special causes and much as he can.

As a result of his burning desire to give back, he said that in 2019 he started a programme where he would do something charitable on his birthday, April 13, each year.

This year he raised $263,000 through his “make the fat man run” initiative. Through the programme, he would ask for donations from close friends and colleagues and would do a certain number of laps around a field, based on the amount of funds raised. The money raised this year was donated to the Jamaica Down Syndrome Foundation.