Rising football star fights for life,all of Kerala pitches in

Since bone marrow transplantation could not be done because of the lack of a matching donor,he has been receiving injections,and the course will be completed in a couple of days. Boharah will then have to stay in Vellore for three months for check-ups.

It was Kozhikode-based Sports and Education Promotion Trust (SEPT),which initially groomed Boharah,that stepped forward to raise the money. Launched in 2004 by a group of football players,SEPT aims to help players from impoverished families and is currently training 1,200 children in 41 centres spread across 11 districts of Kerala.

SEPT chairman and former national-level football referee Arunkumar Nanu said: “Soon after Boharah was diagnosed with severe symptoms of blood disorder,he was taken to CMC. His father could come up with little,so we approached kind-hearted individuals to save the life of the boy.”

Having managed to put together Rs 11.75 lakh on its own,SEPT pooled in contributions from its sub-centres as well as individuals and institutions. Besides,students and faculty of IIM-Kozhikode,which helps SEPT as part of its course’s social development component,contributed Rs 1.5 lakh,while Boharah’s Al-Farook Residential School in Kozhikode gave Rs 3.50 lakh.

“We sought two months from the hospital to mobilise the funds. Until then,he was kept alive with blood transfusions,” Nanu said.

With money always an issue,football had been a turning point in the life of Boharah. Staying at Koodaranji village in Kozhikode with his paternal uncle who worked as a local guard,he would stop at the local ground on way to his primary school to watch boys play football. Everytime the ball got kicked out of the ground,he would be the first to run and fetch it.

“Out of sympathy,the local kids occasionally allowed him to join the game,which later grew into a regular affair. Subsequently,SEPT spotted the budding player who was taken to its campus in Kozhikode for professional training apart from enrolment in a school,” Nanu said.

With Boharah now battling disease,few doubt his fighting power. Before football became his mainstay,it had been a luxury that the boy sandwiched between early morning hours distributing the paper,evenings sweeping the Koodaranji movie hall and nights cleaning vehicles at the local bus stand. If he could kick the ball then,says SEPT coach and former national footballer Manoj Kumar,there is no reason he can’t surmount this latest adversity.