Nineteen-year-old cancer patient Delmar Braham, who was recently featured in the Jamaica Observer, passed away at the United States Embassy in Kingston yesterday, where he had gone to apply for a visa.
Braham, whose story had touched the hearts of many when the Observer published his appeal for financial assistance to go overseas for treatment, was scheduled to leave the island today for Albany Medical Centre in New York, where he was to receive further treatment.
The young man had developed a rare form of osteosarcoma, which had manifested itself as a huge tumour below his shoulder.
He found out that he had cancer last April and had to quit school at Excelsior High, where he was a sixth-form student.
“His parents were there, but I was the one who went inside with him. We went inside through the checkpoint with him in a wheelchair and went to the window. I was there and handed in his passport. I realized he was not breathing and I just started screaming,” a distraught Hamilton told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.
U.S. Visa
She expressed gratitude to individuals and companies who had assisted and who had expressed an interest in assisting, including Alpart, the Optimist Club, and Sabbatical Clinic.
“He was so close, but so far,” she said.
Braham’s mother was too distraught to speak when contacted yesterday.
Last night, US Ambassador to Jamaica Luis Moreno expressed sorrow at Braham’s passing.
“We are saddened by this tragedy and I want to express the Embassy’s deepest condolence to his family,” Ambassador Moreno said.
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