After 26 medical treatments and surgeries, doctors think they have done as much as they can until Hoang Son Pham, who turns 13 in a week, is older. The football-sized vascular growth that he once had on his face is much reduced and no longer threatens his life.

“He looks wonderful compared to what he looked like two years ago,” said Alan Walter, who, along with his wife, Olwyn, became Son Pham’s foster parents and took him in to their Halifax home when he arrived in Canada in 2007.

“We will miss him and he will miss us, but (returning to Vietnam) is the right thing for him.” Back in Vietnam, Son Pham will live with a family he knows.

However, before he returns to his homeland, the young boy will stop in Ottawa Wednesday for a going-away party at the Vietnamese Embassy. Many of the people who came forward to help him, from Canada and the United States, are expected to attend.

“He’s an amazing little kid, an old soul,” said Kate Maslen, former manager of the Children’s Bridge Foundation, which was instrumental in bringing Son Pham to Canada for treatment. “I’ve never heard him complain.”

According to one estimate, Son Pham has received about $1 million worth of medical treatments over the last couple of years. When Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto declined to treat him in the fall of 2007, surgeons from the United States called the Children’s Bridge Foundation offering to help.

Maslen, who found Son Pham during a visit to a Vietnamese orphanage in 2006, won her board’s approval to raise money to pay for his surgery. In the end, more that $500,000 was raised.

But a lot of other people and organizations came forward, too. The Ray Tye Medical Foundation in the United States came up with $250,000. Dr. John Mullikan, a specialist in reconstructive surgery at the Children’s Hospital in Boston, accepted the case, donating his time and skill. Air Canada, through its Kids’ Horizon Program, donated a million travel points to Son Pham, effectively funding all of his trips to Boston. Olwyn and Alan Walter travelled with him every six weeks to Boston for the numerous surgeries. They also found donors to pay for his education.

Politicians transcended partisan persuasions to help. Former deputy prime minister Sheila Copps supported the Foundation’s approach to Air Canada. Former government house leader Jay Hill co-hosted two fund-raisers. NDP Leader Jack Layton and his wife Olivia Chow got involved, along with Liberal MP Glen Pearson. Some raised money, such as Cape Breton Liberal MPs Mark Eyking and Rodger Cuzner, along with Halifax NDP MP Megan Leslie, New Brunswick Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc and the Bloc’s André Bellavance.

Laureen Harper, wife of the Prime Minister, held a rally for Son Pham and his supporters at 24 Sussex Dr. Knowing the then 11-year-old would be spending a lot of time in hospital waiting rooms, she gave him an iPod loaded with music.

All the effort and generosity has paid off. Not only is Son Pham’s facial condition much improved, but he discovered during his schooling in Halifax that he has a first-class mind for math. As well, he’ll return to Vietnam fluent in English. Equally important, he’s returning to his homeland much more confident about himself and his future.

“I’ve seen huge changes in him these last two years,” says Maslen. “He’s much more confident and more positive and extroverted.”

Doctors acknowledge there’s a possibility the tumour could start growing again, but any future surgery, which would involved reconstructing Son Pham’s jaw, will have to wait until he’s fully grown. In the meantime, says Alan Walter, doctors are confident Son Pham’s life is no longer threatened.

By Robert Sibley - The Ottawa Citizen - January 28, 2010