Puttinu apartments... ‘a home away from home’

Two years ago, Christian Galea spent his lucky birthday alone in hospital because, as the coronavirus pandemic hit Malta, he was undergoing immunotherapy to rid his body of cancerous cells before heading to the UK for a bone marrow transplant. 

His mother, Dorianne, sent a birthday cake which he shared with doctors and nurses since relatives and friends were not allowed to visit him during the three months he was in hospital.

The stakes were too high. His immune system was too weak to risk contracting the dreaded, and then novel, COVID-19.

This was one of the hardest times of his three-year battle with cancer.

Sitting in the living room of his Naxxar home, with his mother beside him, Christian recounts how the symptoms started in 2018.

He was preparing to return home after spending a year as a researcher in France, a post he got after completing his doctorate in IT.

He started getting tired but blamed it on travel preparations.

On his return, he kept feeling tired and noticed a swollen lymph node in his neck. He went to various doctors and consultants and carried out several tests. But there was nothing.

“I was a bit unconvinced as I kept feeling unusually tired and it was...