Aye Po is originally from Pantanaw Township, near Yangon, Burma, and now lives in Maesot with her husband and 3 daughters. She came to BCMF when she was 25 years of age complaining of a large mass in her neck. She used to help her husband who works delivering ice.  But she gradually became too sick to help him.

Her daughters, aged 4, 6 and 11 does not go to school because of lack of family funds, and Aye Po herself didn’t go to school as her parents died when she was very young and she was raised by her grandparents.

About five years ago, Aye Po noticed that she had a small mass about the size of a walnut on the right side of her neck and had breathing difficulties. She used a herbal nose inhaler and took paracetamol but she never sought treatment. Then the mass started growing more rapidly and in February 2014 she came to MTC. She was referred to BCMF with the preliminary diagnosis of a simple goiter.

Aye Po went to Chiang Mai a total of four times for tests and observation, as she was having increased difficulty breathing and felt too weak to work. At the time of the last X-ray in May 2015 she was told that she had multiple lumps in her neck and removal was advised. Initially she was very scared of the procedure, but with the encouragement of BCMF staff she agreed to surgery, and this was carried out on 7th October.

Now Aye Po has made a full recovery and is pain free, she is looking forward to the future:

‘When I return home I will start looking for work again. I really want to be able to send my two youngest daughters to school – it is really important that they can get education. I want to say thank you to everyone who has helped me receive treatment.’ She added that her stay in the patient house had been comfortable, ‘thank you for all the information in the child rights training, I was really happy to play the games.’