Dad fighting to save daughter from bone cancer

For the past year, Marvin Henry has been surviving each day through earnest prayers and faith.

This is because his six-year-old daughter Mialeika was diagnosed with precursor B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia, a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Henry related that Mialeika, who is his first child, started complaining of acute joint pains all over her body in December 2021. The distressed father noted that although doctors conducted several tests and scans on his child, they could not determine the cause of her discomfort.

"I took her to Children's [Bustamante Hospital for Children] and they couldn't find anything. At one point they were saying it was tuberculosis, but they weren't finding anything for the joint pain. I think it was later down in 2022, that they said she had cancer," Henry said. Before doctors informed Henry of his daughter's diagnosis, he could not shake the feeling that something was seriously affecting his child's health.

"I kept saying that something was wrong, but I couldn't tell what it was. At one point she was not eating any food, you would give her food and she barely eating. They did some other test until they found out it was cancer," he related.

Henry, who works as an electrician, said he was numb and was left dumbfounded by the news of Mialeika's condition but has since found strength through prayer and faith in God.

"I have to ignore it sometimes and I know that she sick bad but I have to pray about it. When I pray about it, I feel refreshed, I feel a little better," the 29-year-old told the news team.

Mialeika, he said, has been treated with chemotherapy, but he told THE STAR that he is seeking to travel overseas to get her further treatment.

"At one point the doctors at Children's were suggesting that I should get assistance overseas because it's reaching to a point where the cancer is fighting the chemo and medication that they giving her. Obviously, they are saying she is getting worse," he said. This reality, Henry said makes him feel sad, but he is determined that he will not be defeated.

"I don't want to lose her," he said. Mialeika has already spent almost two years out of school, where she would be enrolled in grade one at the Balcombe Drive Infant and Primary in St Andrew.

"I just tell her that everything will soon be alright. There will be no pain," said Henry.

Persons interested in assisting Mialeika, may contact her father Marvin Henry at +1 (876) 424-7627.