Palestinian student aces exams in spite of cancer diagnosis days earlier

Eighteen-year-old Palestinian Nada Qashqish received a grade of 96.4 per cent in her General Secondary School Certificate despite being diagnosed with blood cancer just ten days before she sat the exams.

Speaking to Quds Press, Qashqish said that she was surprised to know that she had a blood cancer, but insisted that this serious sickness would not be an obstacle ahead of her success.

“I could not accept the fact that I was sick,” she said, “it was not easy, but I immediately decided not to surrender to the sickness, but to continue my way of success, which I started when I was a child, and to achieve my dream and study languages and translation at the University of Bethlehem.”

Sickness is not an obstacle in the way of success … I decided not to surrender.

“At first,” she said, “we travelled to Jordan for treatment, but when we recognised that Jordanian and Palestinian hospitals have the same treatment, we went back home and I stayed at Augusta Victoria Hospital in occupied Jerusalem.”

Read: Palestinian school kids face violence due to proximity to Israel settlement

Qashqish continued: “Doctors, nurses and the management at the hospital afforded an appropriate atmosphere for studying and treatment at the same time. They set a timetable for me that allowed enough time for studying.”

She added: “My mother was my permanent companion who helped me the most while staying in the hospital. It was not an easy time for me.”