A 20-year-old's deathbed promise

The parents of a 20-year-old who passed away after three bouts of cancer are petitioning the government to open a young adults’ ward, fulfilling a deathbed promise.
Jerome Frendo had just turned 16 when in 2013 he was told he had a malignant and rare cancer, Ewing’s Sarcoma, which targets bones and soft tissue.
[attach id=797851 type="video"]Video: Jonathan Borg[/attach]
He received the first four cycles of chemotherapy at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital in Floriana, surrounded by much older patients and a dated environment.
But a health setback turned things around for him in an unexpected way.
His treatment at Sir Paul Boffa had to be cut short when he developed a chest infection and was rushed to Mater Dei hospital. There he was admitted to the Rainbow Ward as all other wards were full.

Being surrounded by patients his age and an environment fit for young people immediately lifted his spirits.
Jerome knew that once treated for his chest infection he would have to return to the adults’ wards in Floriana. But unbeknown to him, his father Kenneth convinced Jerome’s oncologist and a consultant paediatric oncologist at Mater Dei to allow his son to continue receiving chemotherapy...