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Winners Gallery | World Understanding Award |
Winner
Thomas Lekfeldt
Ekstra Bladet/MOMENT

"A Star in the Sky"

Judges' Special Recognition
Adam Nadel
Freelance

"Malaria: blood, sweat, and tears"

Finalists

Lu Guang, - "Pollution in China"

Ian Martin, - "Hidden Minority: South Africa's White Poor"

Winner
Thomas Lekfeldt
Ekstra Bladet/MOMENT


"a star in the sky"

Every year 200,000 children develop cancer around the world. Vibe was one of them. In June 2007 the five-year-old Danish girl was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Due to the location of the tumor it was not possible to surgically remove it. Instead, Vibe went through a treatment procedure with many chemotherapy and radiation treatments. In January 2009 Vibe lost the fight against cancer. At the time of her death she was seven years old. Children get other types of cancer than adults. For example Leukemia is the most common form of cancer with children, while they almost never get lung cancer or breast cancer. Brain tumors are the most common type of tumors with children. Every year there are around 40 new cases of brain tumors with children in Denmark. In the developed countries treatment of child cancer has improved a lot during the last decades, but still cancer is one of the main causes of deaths among children, and the surviving children often have significant side-effects due to the treatment. Vibe's father Michael used to say that he would catch the stars in the sky for Vibe if she asked him to. Now he tells her sister that Vibe herself has become one of the stars in the sky.

Vibe receives a stem cell transplantation in Rigshospitalet, the main hospital of Copenhagen, Denmark. The fluid that gets injected into her veins by the nurse on the left is only 4 degrees Celsius. It is very painful for her, giving her nausea and stomach ache. The purpose of the transplantation is to help her immune system to recover after the last of Vibe's high dosage chemotherapy treatments. Vibe's mother Helle is on the right. During most of the treatment procedure Helle was with Vibe to take care of her when she was hospitalized.

 

 

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