Football Brings Joy to Suffering Patients at São Paulo Cancer Hospital Brazil
While there was grief all over their home country after the dramatic exit of five time world champions Brazil, the quarterfinal match against the Netherlands brought joy to many patients battling for their life in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.
Over at the São Paulo Cancer Hospital, patient Jorge Cocer Neto forgot his throat cancer for the duration of the match, simply focusing on praying for his country as they looked set to tame the perennial underachievers of football, the Netherlands.
However, it all turned sour for Neto (and millions of Brazilians), as their team surrendered their one-nil advantage to lose 2-1 in a pulsating encounter.
Despite the reversal, the patients and doctors at the hospital supported their team till the very end, hoping for a miracle that could have taken them through to the semifinals.
For some other fans, the match was perhaps their last opportunity of seeing their national team appear in a World Cup match, as their illness had taken its toll on their lives.
One such fan is 56 year old Cocer, suffering from terminal throat cancer, who was flanked by his wife and son as he witnessed what was most likely his last World Cup match.
His wife believes that Cocer’s passion for football was making him cope better with his illness, as he was totally engrossed in the most watched sporting spectacle in the world.
"I think this (World Cup) helps a lot. Everything that takes him (the patient) off this hospital routine helps a lot. It helps take the focus off (the disease) because the person is feeling bad and ill, so this helps out a great deal," she said.
Another cancer patient was glued to her TV set dressed in the traditional Brazilian blue and yellow jersey.
Although she is battling breast cancer for the past seven months, she felt that watching the soccer match with her nation involved helped her deal with her illness in a befitting manner.
"I think that for everyone who has cancer, who is being treated for cancer with chemotherapy which everyone knows is a difficult thing, it's a difficult treatment and a serious disease - I think it is important for us to forget the disease and the treatment a bit and try to live well, live with happiness and joy and take part in all the happy things in life because this helps us to have a much better recovery," she added after the match, and remained upbeat about her team despite their shocking defeat.
Meanwhile, the doctors, nurses and support staff at the hospital gathered around TV sets and cheered every move their team made.
Their tempers, however, flared up as their team conceded a second goal in the second half that effectively put an end to Brazil’s dream of attaining World Cup glory.
Even the management at the hospital was willing to give their workers a chance to see the five-time world champions play, arranging TV screens throughout the hospital’s 28 storey building that treats thousands of cancer patients every year.
There is hope amongst the patients that are being treated for the deadly disease that they would be able to overcome their ailment or at least prolong their lives long enough to see the greatest football event in their own country in 2014.
They hope that their team will win another title on home soil four years down the line, and feel that the incentive to see the greatest sporting event in their homeland will keep them alive.
Let us hope that their wish is granted, and that lady luck and God smiles on them.
Tags: