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Panagiotis (Peter) Damianakis
age: 3, birthday: November 29, 1999
submitted by Cos Damianakis (Uncle)

You cannot imagine that a simple trip to the walk-in clinic, turns out to be devastating news for a family. On the evening of August 23, 2001, Eva and Telis (parents) had taken their child to a walk-in clinic for a cold and fever that had developed. During the check-up the Doctor suggested that they should take their child down to The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. With worry in their faces, they prayed nothing was wrong. I had arrived that night as they received the news that little Panagiotis is diagnosed with Leukemia. There was nothing more that could be said at that time except that they had to keep him and run further tests. The sadness, shock, emotions and unanswered questions were over-whelming.

As of mid-December, it has been 4 months, the sadness continues, the emotions have somewhat subsided and the unanswered questions are now far and few for the near term. Panagiotis has now had four Chemotherapy treatments and we have come to realize that he is in one of the best Hospitals in the world, under the best care and God is on his side. Our wish, just like anyone else that has gone through this, is for him to be in remission and beat it.

Update:
It has now been almost 2 years and things seem to be progressing very well. Panagiotis has gone from monthly visits to quarterly visits and continues to have a clean bill of health.