After a year’s struggle with aplastic anemia, a bone marrow disease that strikes five in a million a year, 16-year-old football player Premsingh Boharah is confident about returning to the game within a year.
Asked about playing football again, a sudden smile lit up the former state player’s face. “I am doing jogging and some fitness exercises. Doctors say my blood platelet count must increase first. I am confident I will return to play by next year,” he said.
Premsingh came back to his hometown four days ago after a year’s treatment at Christian Medical College, Vellore. His parents are in Nepal.
His sponsors, the Sports and Education Promotion Trust (SEPT), had collected about `22 lakh from football fans for his treatment. About Rs 10 lakh has been spent on him till now.
“Now, I have a blood platelet count of 54,000. I need the count to be around 1.5 lakh to
play again. When I was admitted at the hospital, my blood count was 6,000. In last March, I underwent bone marrow transplantation. Every six days, I had to undergo blood transfusion, and now it has been six months I did it. I thank SEPT, my teachers and friends at Farook HSS for their help. Yesterday, I went to meet them and it was a bit emotional,” he said.
His next checkup at CMS is on January 18 and he is confident the result will be better.
“This is a humanitarian case in which the sport came to rescue the player. The support given by SEPT to the player will continue,” said SEPT chairman Arun K. Nanu.
Deccan Chronicle was the first to break the tragedy of Prem Singh.