9
SILENT FIGHTER
Today is July 26, 2019. I am writing this page after reading a heartbreaking news story in the Colombo Telegraph, a Sri Lanka newspaper.
It was days ago that the nation received the distressing news of the sad demise of Irfan Hafiz, a differently abled ‘keyboard warrior’ as he was referred to, about whom most came to know and discovered how talented he was, only fairly recently. It was not many months ago that Irfan rose into prominence when the local media and social media highlighted his inspiring storya silent fighter, who despite being completely bedridden suffering from a rare disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) for the past twenty six years, typed entirely on his iPhone with just the little strength in one finger and authored three books– Silent Struggle and Moments Of Merriment (Stories of children ) and another— his third book Silent Thoughts. Sounds unbelievable and stunning! but it was true; a life episode of an amazing young man, who was God conscious, persevering and who never gave up amidst life’s hard struggles. The story certainly lifted many distressed hearts, raised eyebrows and provided many motivational lessons and a healing touch of renewed faith particularly to thousands if not millions, of youth both in Sri Lanka and even beyond, who may be losing hope in a gloomy world with depleting opportunities for them to forge ahead. Irfan sadly lost his long battle with the disease and passed away very peacefully at the age of 37, having answered the Call from His Creator, leaving his fast expanding fan and admirer network in deep grief and extreme sadness. To God we belong; to him shall we Return.
I thought of writing some reflections from a greatly uplifting life story of Irfan, who has left an indelible mark in the annals of time, by surmounting many obstacles to reach an enviable pinnacle of achievement in the area of authorship and writing, of Himalayan proportions.
Irfan, was born in Matara in 1981 and was the third child of eight children. His father Hafiz Issadeen is a retired Principal, an administrative officer and an Editor of "Arumbu” Educational Magazine. Mr. Issadeen, the dad was an inspiring figure too, and did not give up on his mission to help others afflicted with this dreaded disease DMD. He was the president of Parent Project MD-Sri Lanka and was instrumental in organising the first ever National Muscular Dystrophy Parents Convention in Sri Lanka, at which event, all important latest developments in the medical research on DMD and other MD diseases were shared.
Irfan maintained a regular flow of motivational ideas and shared inspiring facets out of his hard struggle on his FB Page under the name ‘Silent Fighter’. They capture the immense struggles he has been going through which indeed are really inspirational. Some of them I wish to share here. He said,
‘Since it was informed that DMD had no permanent cure, my parents were going through a very complicated period. Our neighbours and relatives had started to drive us mad with their various suggestions and advice. My parents had no option but listening to some of those suggestions. I was taken to native doctors, spiritual healers and even to a sorcerer but every effort went in vain. I had to miss many months of schooling while I was getting treatment from a native doctor’.
‘I became chair-bound at twelve years old and since then my life became very boring and some kind of frustration crept in to my mind. My movements were restricted and the things I wanted to do became almost impossible. It made me very irritated. However, I did not realize that I had developed an inner frustration in my mind but it came out in my behaviour.’