Can soccer help kids kick cancer?
The Champions Academy for soccer is launching a section for children with cancer in an attempt to help them overcome their illness and boost their morale.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A new division at the Champions Academy for soccer hopes to help youngsters battle an especially tough opponent: cancer.
Boys who have been diagnosed with cancer are exercising and playing soccer despite their illness, body weakness and bald heads, under the supervision of coaches and doctors. They are preparing for a ceremony in early 2017 to officially inaugurate the academy's division for children with cancer.
“I want to forget about my illness, recover, practice my hobby, run and prove to everyone that I can do what ordinary children do," Osama al-Dairi, a 12-year-old diagnosed with leukemia, told Al-Monitor. "I am trying to be stronger than the disease and defeat it, just as my family and doctors told me and taught me.”
Dairi was full of life as he ran behind the ball on the academy’s soccer field. He said he is happy playing the game he loves.
