Le Thanh Giang began sewing fish-shaped pillows to give child cancer patients as gifts last mid-autumn. Hundreds of such pillows have been completed and presented.

As a full-time mother, Giang wanted to help ease the children’s pain and torment. Every time she saw a nonprofit group updating the images of the children returning home, Giang wondered if she could help.

Last mid-Autumn festival, Giang came up with an idea of sewing pillows to give to children being treated at Da Nang Hospital.

Giang often creates handmade products from fabric and toys for children. Living in a coastal area, she is attracted by themes related to the sea, fish and shrimp, starfish and coral reefs. 

She decided to make pillows with fish and starfish shapes for the children.

Giang says the children may feel as if they have a friend as they hold the pillow as they fall asleep. The children can talk to them and forget about the pain and fatigue they suffer.

“Child patients need a pillow to hold so they can have better sleep with reduced pain and discomfort,” she said.

The fish-shaped pillow has embroidered eyes and mouths.

To date, Giang has organized four campaigns to give pillows to cancer patients. She gave them directly to the children in the hospital in the first three campaigns.

Giang said she could see the patients undergoing pain. There were children who suffered from so much pain that they burst into tears.

One patient told Giang: “I am staying in hospital with my father and grandmother. My mother left to get married."

“I was about to cry. I felt sorry for the boy who lacked love from his mother when he needed it the most,” she said. “I remember a girl who was crying when raising her hands to receive the gift from me. I felt pain in my heart."

One day, she received a call from an officer at the Da Nang Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital who said another child who left the hospital took the pillow home.

“Maybe the pillow will be burned in accordance with local custom. In another world, the child will still have a friend,” she said.

Ngoc Lai