Girls of 13 in helpline pleas over arranged marriages
A NURSE battling advanced cancer has spoken of her fight to raise funds for private cancer treatment after being told she has pursued all options on the NHS.
Single mother Mussarat Nazir, from Bradford, has stage four cancer and needs £13,000 a month to pay for new drugs.
The 54-year-old, who has lost her father and both brothers to cancer in the past few years, has claimed she is determined to live to see her only son graduate from university.
“I’m a fighter,” she said. “There are women who have beaten it. If they can do it, I can. But there’s nothing left for me on the NHS.
“We are told to go home and enjoy the days we have left. I want to be here. I want to make it. I want to have lots of years left.
“There are so many people crying out for help. The drugs are available, but the costs are so high.”
Miss Nazir, known to friends as Maz, was diagnosed with cancer in 2002. After years of back pain, which she was prescribed physiotherapy for, an optometrist picked up on a tumour in her eye.
After tests, it emerged she had both bone and breast cancer as well.
“It was such a shock,” she said. “I’ve already lost a father, then both brothers. I’m the last child. My mum is bed-ridden now – I can’t even see her now, she would be so worried. I’ve been on treatment for a number of years, but my options have run out.”
New targeted immunotherapy drugs have helped others in Miss Nazir’s position, and she has researched a visit to a clinic in Germany which would treat her, but it could cost £100,000. She has now discovered the drugs are available privately in Manchester.
“The drugs are available in England, but you have to pay for them, at £13,500 to £14,000 a month,” said Miss Nazir. “It could be three months or five. I could be cured. I just can’t know.
“The drugs are there, but they can’t give them to us because they are so expensive.
“That’s it for me, without them. I will be left to die. I can’t do that. I don’t want my son left on his own. I don’t want my mum to lose a third child.
“The drugs are available, but the costs are so high. The same drugs are half the price in Mexico or Brazil, but I can’t get there.
“The NHS can’t pay for every person.”
Miss Nazir, from Shipley, is a nurse who has worked at Bradford and St James’s Hospital in Leeds, who took early retirement when she became too ill to work.
Her son, Adam Mahmood, 20, is studying bio-medical science at Newcastle and is due to complete his studies next year.
“He’s fighting it, but he’s scared,” Miss Nazir said. “He’s doing so well in education, and has worked so hard. I want to see him graduate.
“It’s only the two of us, we’re on our own. There’s been a lot of sadness, but I’m determined to be positive. I’m a single parent.
“I’ve got cancer. And I really need help. I’m desperate now.”
An online crowdfunding page has been set up by friends of Miss Nazir to help pay for the treatment.
To find out more, visit www. justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ mussarattreatment. RISING NUMBERS of young girls are seeking help to cope with the trauma of forced marriage, support groups have warned.
Hundreds of “frightened” and “helpless” teens as young as 13 are contacting Childline for support. The charity revealed that it delivered 12 per cent more counselling sessions in 2016/17 than in 2015/16.
It comes as the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said some families use the long school summer holidays to pull children out of Britain and marry them off abroad to strangers.
Family and community loyalties, mixed notions of honour and the film of secrecy over the taboo issue make its true scale hard to grasp, the NSPCC said.
Girls added that fears of ostracism, cultural expectations and punishment for relatives acted as barriers against them speaking out.
A 17-year-old girl told counsellors: “I got forced to marry last year. I never wanted any of this.
“My friends are being supportive but I can’t talk to my mum about it as she thinks he’s the best thing for me and told me that if I end the marriage, she won’t speak to me ever again. I’ve never even met him.”
In the 2011/12 financial year, Childline said it provided just 55 counselling sessions on forced marriage.
In the last financial year, the charity delivered 205 sessions, up from 183 in 2015/16.
NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said: “Forcing a child to marry shows a complete lack of regard for their feelings, thoughts or ambitions. We must be clear that, regardless of cultural expectations, this is a crime and an abuse of human rights.”
And Childline founder and president Dame Esther Rantzen added: “Young people can feel helpless because sometimes those near to them aren’t interested in their happiness or welfare.
“It’s desperately important that those are frightened or feel that they have no one to turn to get in touch with Childline.”
Forced marriage can carry a prison sentence of up to seven years, the group said. But they added as of December 31 last year, figures suggest there has been just one conviction in Britain.
Childline can be reached on 0800 1111 and the NSPCC Helpline is 0808 800 5000. Both lines are free, confidential and open 24/7.