Charlie is cured! bringing hope to many like him

Charlie is cured! his story brings hope to many like him

It is so very hard for a parent to hear the dreaded diagnosis of leprosy for their child. “Your son has leprosy” comes as crushing blow on top of all their other burdens in life.

Look at all the heart-breaking hardships that Rachael, Charlie’s mother, already had to bear in Papua New Guinea. Charlie’s little sister is seriously disabled. They live in a village so poor, there is literally no land at all – they live on stilts over filthy water off the shore of the capital city.

With no soil to grow healthy food, sickness is rife. Diabetes, Tuberculosis … and Leprosy.

Rachael created the best home she could for her children, but when she heard “leprosy”, it broke her. Among the world’s most disadvantaged people, leprosy is still so deadly and feared that many people with the disease are afraid to come forward.
In fact, for every child donors have helped to find and cure in Papua New Guinea – like Charlie – our research suggests 5X as many cases remain hidden.

Malnourished children like Charlie have few defences against leprosy. His first symptom was the tell-tale patches of numb skin on his back.

Soon his face was swollen, almost beyond recognition. Disfiguring lumps called nodules peppered his bloated cheeks.

His mother was horrified. She sought help from the only health worker serving their village – one of the Leprosy Mission volunteers our donors support so generously.
The volunteer took Charlie to a clinic, but then the dreaded diagnosis came: “Your son has leprosy”. His mother’s spirit was so broken by the terrible news, she refused to accept it.
With all her other burdens, leprosy was just too much to bear.
So Charlie’s leprosy kept getting worse. The teasing started, first from his friends, but then other children laid into him, terrorising the little boy, who was already frightened about his future. “They get cross. They bully me,” he told us, plaintively remembering the abuse. “I felt sad.” Charlie was so embarrassed and ashamed.

He still found solace in playing football until his foot stopped working properly. Charlie was developing leprosy’s dangerous “drop foot” condition. He started tripping over his foot because he could not lift it properly. Humiliated, Charlie stopped playing his beloved sport.

Next, Charlie’s wounds stopped healing. In his sea village on stilts, the metal walkways between houses have razor sharp edges. Cuts are part of growing up there, but Charlie’s gashes became weeping ulcers that ate away the flesh on his legs. Eventually, Charlie could no longer walk to school.

This was tragic for Charlie, who loved to watch the planes soaring over the ocean and dreamed of becoming a pilot.
Charlie knew he would never learn to fly unless he did very well at school … but leprosy was stealing his education.

Charlie’s family’s income fell to starvation levels as his mother and his aunt had to cut into precious work time to look after him and his little sister. With the insistence of the health volunteer you support in PNG, Charlie’s mother relented and finally accepted the diagnosis of leprosy.

She committed herself to making sure her son took every single tablet of his yearlong course of medication. It worked! Charlie’s leprosy was cured! But… for every child like Charlie who is found and cured, five more are in hiding.

We could not shake that frightening fact when I was talking with Charlie on the phone. Call quality was patchy, but the joy in his voice was very clear. Despite the scars of leprosy, and all the tears from the teasing and bullying, Charlie is seeing his dreams in life being restored.

He still has remnants of leprosy patches on his back. He still has ulcers that he keeps clean with ointment that donors help to provide.

He is not back at school yet, but that day is getting closer, because he is determined that he is going to be able to walk to class once more. Every day he uses a bright pink scarf for his exercises to build the strength in his withered foot. His dream of being a pilot is coming into focus again. After talking with Charlie, we believe he can learn to fly, but what frightens and upsets us is that for every Charlie we find, five more cases remain hidden somewhere in PNG.

The best way to fight leprosy is give people the chance to improve their whole lives – especially health, nutrition and income. In these last days of the disease, the only people at risk from leprosy are those who cannot afford to keep themselves healthy.