Rashi Agarwal
Mom shares the heartbreaking reason on social media why she decided not to tell her terminally-ill son he was dying.
Gheuwan Arja, an Australian mother from Sydney, lost her three kids to life-threatening diseases in the past recent years.
The family received their most 'hurtful' and 'devastating' blow when their 10-year-old son, Omar, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in July 2021.
This cancer develops in the lymphatic system, a network of vessels and glands spread throughout your body.
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Even after going through rigorous treatment for a consecutive six months - including chemotherapy and 18 surgeries - Omar showed no signs of recovery and succumbed to the deadly cancer in January 2022.
Arja uploaded a TikTok Video with a text overlay that reads: "One of the worst days of my life lying to him".
The 10-year-old brave chap could be seen ringing the coveted bell in the video clip, signalling his folks about the successful treatment on his road to recovery.
"Telling him that his treatment went well and he's finally finished, and he gets to ring the bell because his done but that was far from the truth," she writes.
"How do you tell your child that his going home to spend his last days with his family.
"You just can't do it."
Arja confessed to having never told her son about his cancer diagnosis or about his battle with a brain tumour until the day he died, and instead told him he had an ear infection.
She and her husband, Fadi are survived by two kids: Rabieh, who is 16 and Luay, who is just eight-years-old.
The mother-of-five lost her four-year-old daughter, Aisha in 2009 to a rare genetic condition called Niemann Pick Type C.
It causes the abnormal accumulation of cholesterol and other fats within various body tissue, including brain tissue.
The 41-year-old mother wrote in a Launch Good fundraiser following Aisha's demise that, 'It was devastating and my whole world fell apart'.
Unfortunately, the mother's life hit another low when one of her sons, Mohamed, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2019, and died within two weeks of his diagnosis.
She said: "He showed symptoms of having a stroke, and we rushed him to the hospital. But it was too late.
"Mohamed passed away after just two weeks. It was a heartbreaking experience, and I felt like I had lost everything."
The mother, who has managed to raise more than $16,000 for her eldest son's pilgrimage to Mecca, wishes to convey to other parents that despite adversity, 'life does go on'.
"Don't give up on life. You do go through things in life but life is still beautiful," she told 7News.
"You want your children to fight for life - how dare you give up on life. Don't - that's how I see it.
"If my son fought for his life how dare I give up on mine."