Football prodigy suffers from rare illness

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A rarest of the rare disease threatens to cut short the promising career of M. Premsingh Boharah, the 14-year-old Nepali football prodigy picked up by the Sports and Education Promotion Trust from the streets of Kozhikode three years ago.

He was diagnosed to have Aplastic Anemia, a rare disease that occurs to five in a million a year, and has been referred to the Christian Medical College Vellore, from Kozhikode Medical College.

Premsingh had been handpicked by SEPT and taken to their residential camp in Farook Higher Secondary School, recognizing his talent, while he was working as a newspaper delivery boy and bus cleaner in Kozhikode. The player later represented Kerala Under-13 team and also visited Malaysia, Pune and Jharkhand as part of SEPT team to participate in various tournaments.

Aplastic anemia is a disorder in which the bone marrow fails to make enough blood cells and is possibly cured by a bone marrow transplantation.

“Premsingh was admitted to CMC last week and his condition is serious. The bone marrow transplantation would cost about Rs 15 lakh and has to be done as soon as possible,” said SEPT secretary Sethumadhavan.

“We have asked for gap of 45 days for the operation. However, he needs a weekly blood transfusion and the cost of daily medicine runs to thousands,” he said.

Within four days of his admittance, his family has spent Rs 20,000 for daily medicines. Premsingh's father is working with a security guard in Madurai and is financially not sound to bear the expenses for the treatment. All the expenses of his studies were taken care by the SEPT and the player was residing at Farook HSS hostel to take part in the daily football training given by SEPT.

“We have no idea how the money will be raised. One of our coaches has gone with the boy to the medical college. Once he returns, we will meet and decide on next steps. We hope to raise it from donations,” Sethumadhavan said.