At eight, Chelsie Reid seems much older than her age. She is bright, articulate and at such a tender age she is already a cancer survivor.
Chelsie is blind, though from looking at her no one would guess as she says she does everything in her power to keep it a secret less people pity her. “I don’t like people to do things for me unless I ask because it makes me feel ‘why do I have hands, why do I have a nose, why do I have ears, why do I have feet…’ I know I don’t have eyes but I am thankful for my other senses they help do everything,” she told Stabroek News recently.
Chelsie’s mother and grandparents consider her their ‘miracle child’ as they were told since she was three months old that she wasn’t likely to survive. The child was born with cancer in both eyes and doctors had told her parents that if left untreated she would eventually die since children with this affliction rarely lived past their third birthday.
Chelsie was born on August 5, 1999. Her grandfather, Pastor Carl Allen, said she was about two weeks old when her mother, Gloria Allen, observed that something was wrong with her eyes. He said she was eventually taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and Dr George Norton made the diagnosis and recommended urgent treatment overseas. Allen said the family didn’t have the means to do so and they sought the public’s assistance.
He said the Ministry of Health pledged US$6,000 and the PNCR, through its then leader, the late President Desmond Hoyte, contributed to the medical fund. Chelsie was later granted a US visa after a non-governmental organisation promised to assist in providing treatment for the child. At about four months old Chelsie went to the US with her grandfather and after she was examined by a doctor it was suggested that both of her eyes should be removed to rid her of the cancer.
However, Allen said the family asked that only one eye be removed to allow Chelsie the chance to see her surroundings before she became totally blind. The child continued to undergo treatment even as the disease ravaged her remaining eye. The eye was eventually removed when she was four years old. In the meantime, the US granted Chelsie, her mother and her grandparents US immigrant visas. At this point in the interview, Chelsie took over the conversation; eager to tell all about her experiences.
The child said at first she attended a ‘normal’ school that had special accommodation for children with similar needs and that she used Braille to learn. The third-grader also said at first she did not like school because she found Maths difficult to understand. “But I try and I like my Maths teacher and I like multiplication but I don’t like divide by, but I work hard and I know it would get easier,” she said with a smile highlighted by her fancy sunglasses. Chelsie also said she enjoys music and practices often on her keyboard and while she finds it difficult sometimes to learn the keys she says she keeps at it. “I know the harder you work, you would succeed,” she said.
The girl also confided that she has seven best friends and she rattled off their names in quick succession. Chelsie said they are her best friends because they are not mean to her. “I don’t like it when people are mean to me because they hurt my feelings so I choose them to be my best friends because they are never mean to me,” she said with a sad smile. The lass also said she loves KFC, Mc Donald’s and French fries. She said too, “I am a Christian and I love the Lord. My Jesus keeps me going and he says I am going to drive and drive all the way to heaven.”
Chelsie was also high in praise of her mother Gloria, whom she referred to as a “side teacher” because of all the help she receives from her. “She gives me knowledge and she helps me to read, we work together as a team, we are team-strong,” she said brightly.
When this newspaper asked Chelsie who helps her at school she says she uses a cane to find her way around the school and to cross the road. It was at this point that she expressed her displeasure at being offered help before she requests it. Chelsie said she hopes to become a teacher and she’d like to work with children who are blind. “I would volunteer and help little children,” she said, adding that she’d try to make them feel as comfortable with their disability as she is with hers. The little girl said she is aware of all the help she received as a baby and she is grateful to all the persons who ‘pitched in’ to make her trip to the US possible.
This is Chelsie’s second trip to Guyana since she left as a baby, she first visited when she was three-years-old. Chelsie said she plans to enjoy her Guyanese holiday so she’d have lots to tell her friends on her return to the US. (Oluatoyin Alleyne)
