Young Navan boy battling cancer gets wish to be real life soldier

A young boy from Navan who is battling a rare and aggressive form of cancer had his dream come true at the weekend when he was treated to a ride in a real army jeep.

Five-year-old Nahyan Javed who wants to be a soldier when he grows up got the chance to experience real military life at the weekend in Blackwater Park in Navan at a fundraising event to help in securing the youngster life saving treatment in the U.S.

Locals Jack Dechant and Joseph Garvey completed a sprint triathlon on Saturday raising over €11,000 in the event.

Nahyan’s mum Ravhia said he was “delighted” to get the chance to be a real life soldier. She added:

“It was really great, Nahyan loved it. We had a couple events before this fundraiser so he was tired and didn’t want to go but when he saw the army jeep he was thrilled.”

little Nahyan was diagnosed with Metastatic Neuroblastoma, a high risk stage 4 cancer that attacks the bone and bone marrow and has survival rate of only 40%.

The brave youngster is at the end of a grueling 18-month treatment plan including chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, surgery to remove a tumour, radiation, immunotherapy and even spent time in Germany receiving proton radiotherapy, a treatment unavailable in Ireland.

Thankfully Nahyan is now cancer free but there is a 60 percent chance that the cancer will return. His family are hoping to raise €375,000 to get him on the Bivalent Vaccine trial at MSK Cancer Center in New York the only pediatric tumour vaccine in existence to “give him a chance at life.”

Thanks to the community rallying around the Javeed family over €90,000 has been raised so far.

speaking on her son’s progress Ravhia said:

“He has finished his third cycle of immunotherapy and we have a ten or twelve-day gap in between the treatment so we are home with no hospital visits.

“The fundraising is going really well, there are so many businesses who have contacted me and they want to get on board and help us.

“It is really overwhelming because when I first started the fundraiser it was so hard because it was just me that was doing everything and managing everything then my neighbour reached out to me.

“Everyone knows now and everyone is doing it on their own. It is taking a lot of stress off us, we are just focusing on Nahyan and his treatment because he is still in active treatment, he is getting really weak every day, he has no appetite and I have to force feed him and I have to focus on him and I have to focus on his diet and gain weight.

“It is giving me a chance to focus on Nahyan instead of the fundraising, I’m really happy and very relaxed.”

Nahyan still has another few months of treatment ahead:

“There are five cycles and he has already done three, there are two more left and he going to have scans in between so it is going to go on until August or September.

“Now we can think about applying for visas and things like that. We are helpful that its is going to happen and we are very happy.”