MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Heartbroken mom decided not to tell terminally-ill son he was dying after losing two of her children

Gheuwan Arja broke down when she saw her son, Omar, light up with delight as he rang a hospital bell to signal his cancer treatment was over

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: A devastated mother, who reportedly lost three children to terminal illnesses, revealed the heartbreaking decision to tell her 10-year-old son he was recovering when in fact he was going to die in a couple of days. Gheuwan Arja, 41, from Sydney's Greenacre suburb, could not stop her tears after she saw her son, Omar, light up with delight as he rang a hospital bell to signal he had finished his cancer treatment.

The embattled mother-of-five opened up about how she told her son a "white lie" to spare him the pain of knowing he had only weeks to live after undergoing six months of chemotherapy and 18 surgeries after being diagnosed with a Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. The aggressive form of cancer is known to attack the lymph nodes, which form an integral part of our immune system.

READ MORE

Mother of terminally-ill kid gets abusive note for parking in disabled bay: 'Lazy conning b***h'

'She's our angel': Family asks people to send cards to terminally ill 4-yr-old daughter on final birthday

'One of the worst days'

Taking to TikTok, Arja bemoaned how it was "one of the worst days" of her life "lying to him." A video showed little Omar sitting in a wheelchair and ringing the bell at the hospital while medical staffers clapped for him and his mother joined in, standing behind her terminally-ill son. "How do you tell your child that he is going home to spend his last days with his family?" Arja captioned the video, in which she was seen wiping tears while her son smiled from his wheelchair. Omar eventually succumbed to the disease in January 2022. Arja revealed that she never told her son he was battling cancer, nor that he had also fought a brain tumor earlier in his life. She told him he had a ear infection instead. 

According to the Daily Mail, Arja's decision stemmed from the harrowing experience of seeing two of her other children die of terminal illnesses. A devout Muslim, the grieving mother said her first child, a daughter named Aisha, was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition called Neiman Pick Type C, which causes cholesterol and other fats to accumulate in the liver, spleen or lungs, eventually spreading to the brain. The child died at the age of four in 2009. 

"It was devastating and my whole world fell apart," Arja wrote in a Launch Good fundraiser, adding, "But I knew that Allah had a plan, and I had to accept it. Then, in 2019, my third-born son, Mohamed, was diagnosed with a brain tumor that we didn't know about. 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."

'Don't give up on life'

Mohamed died nearly a decade to the day after Aisha. Shortly after, the family was dealt another blow when their fourth child, a son named Omar, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in July 2021 and he died in January the following year.

Arja and her husband Fadi, 48, now have two children Rabieh, 16, and Luay, eight. At the time of publication, she had raised more than $17,000 to take her eldest son to Mecca. She now wants to inspire other parents to embrace the reality that "life goes on." Arja told 7News, "Don't give up on life. You do go through things in life but life is still beautiful. 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."