Below is the letter of compliments that Mr. Thanh has written recently during the days in Singapore.

(Mr Thanh is the father of little Vu Thai Hung: http://site.gentlefund.org/en/activities/little-vu-thai-hung)

Singapore, November 15th, 2006
A letter from Vu Van Thanh and Tran Thi Thao
Parents of Vu Thai Hung

Dear Mr President and Mrs. Lan, together with all members of GFO

Thanks to all the helps from our friends and relatives, the kind-hearts people, and especially the warm hearts in GFO, as well as the whole-heartedness of doctors in NUH, up to now, our son, Vu Thai Hung, has overcome the most intensive phase of treatment (chemotherapy) and is moving to the maintenance phase (treatment by drugs). His doctors have told me that the result of treatment is very good, and the possibility of his full recovery from illness in the future is quite high. Therefore, we would like to extend our greatest thanks to all those who have helped us during our fight against the disease.

Below is a brief summary of some milestones of the treatment process and the current health condition of Little Hung

He arrived in Singapore on May 8th, as the doctors in Vietnam said that hospitals in Vietnam did not have the necessary facilities for treating this disease. In Singapore, doctors predicted that he would have to undergo 4 chemotherapy sessions, and if there were no progress, he would need a marrow transplant. In that case, the treatment cost would reach 300,000 USD. Without the transplant, the total cost would be between 120,000 USD and 150,000 USD. These amounts of money far exceeded our financial capabilities. The treatment would last about 5 to 6 months. Fortunately, his condition was better than predicted, and the disease was discovered in an early stage, so he had to undergo only 3 chemotherapy sessions. The fourth session was replaced with treatment by drugs at home for 2 years to prevent the disease from coming back. Therefore, the total cost was cut down a bit. Now, his health condition is very close to normal. The levels of various elements in his blood are the same as a normal person, except for white blood cells and neutrophils, which were kept lower than normal by the drugs he is taking everyday. If everything goes as planned, after 2 years, he will be healthy again. For the time being, we need to take care of him and his health condition. When we asked his doctors about his future, they assured me that he would be as healthy as normal people, able to get married and have healthy children. As he is still very young, all the defects to his organs will be fully healed.

We came back to Vietnam on October 5th. Our son had good health condition. During the week after the return, he stayed at home and was taken care of by his mother, so his condition was very good. The first time he came to the hospital for children for checkup was 18th October. The levels of elements in his blood were different from the last tests. Therefore, the doctors decided to reduce his daily dose. On 19th October, he had fever and running nose. The next few days, his temperature kept increasing, and his throat was very much in flame. One week later, his throat was normal again. On 25th October, he had another blood test. The result made us worried. The levels of various elements in his blood continued falling. We immediately contacts doctors in NUH, and they said that he would need a marrow test to determine the right cause of the symptoms. Therefore, on 26th October, we had to come back to Singapore, with fear and worries...

On 27th October, he had blood test and marrow test. The result of the blood test was not very good. The levels of elements fell close to dangerous ranges. The only good sign was that the level of red blood cells was still good. The marrow test was very important, but the result would only be available earliest by 30th October. Therefore, we had to continue waiting. Fortunately, the result was good, and there was no sign of the return of cancerous cells. Thank God, our fear has not become reality. The causes of those symptoms were his prescription and also some infections. His doctors have modified his daily dose, and they said that he would be able to return to Vietnam in mid-December. His health condition is quite good at the moment, although there are still complicated fluctuations of the levels of elements in his blood. Doctors also said that the treatment for our son has proven successful, and he would only need two more years of extra care before going back to normal life.

There are a lot of people that we want to give our thanks for their supports and great helps that we have received during the treatment of our son. When we were down, depressed and hopeless, they came and encourage us, giving us strength and hope to continue our journey. I am also thankful for all the financial aids, which allowed us to stay back and take better care for our son. Thanks to all those helps, our son received the best treatment, and overcame the disease. We are very touched whenever we think about those moments and the helps and encouragement that we have received from everybody.

When we first came here, we faced a lot of problems. We only knew the addresses of some friends in Singapore. When we arrived at the airport, some friends of our friends, who were studying Post-graduate in Singapore, came and picked us up, and we stayed in their place during the first night here. They were very nice, but as they also had just arrived here for a short time, and they were busy studying, so their help was somewhat limited. If I needed to send emails or exchange money, I had to travel from NUH to Kallang, which was time consuming, and I had less time for my son. Fortunately, in the third week here, we met our benefactors. Some students from NUS and NTU came and saw us after reading about us from the posts the Minh Ngoc (NTU) and Hoang Oanh (NUS) posted on the schools