Moroccan Girl, 10, Receives Life-Saving Cancer Surgery in Spain After Crowdfunding Success

Moroccan doctors diagnosed Israe with pelvic cancer in January, the treatment of which requires surgical intervention. But given the complexity and high cost of the medical procedure, her parents launched a fundraising campaign to seek the help of good-hearted people. Thousands of people expressed their solidarity with the family and responded to this fundraising call launched only four months ago by Souleymane Izaagague, Israe’s father.

The "crowdfunding" campaign was supported by the media and civil society figures in Morocco and the Arab world, who widely relayed the information on social networks. This allowed the family to raise enough funds from around the world to have Israe operated on abroad.

Souleymane and his wife, Ouafae El Khaili, then contacted the head of the pediatric orthopedic and trauma surgery department at HM Nens, Francisco Soldado, a renowned specialist in vascularized autotransplantation, for the operation on their daughter. "When I heard about Israe’s case and studied it, I saw that I could help her. She is only 10 years old. It is an atypical case with a complex reconstruction, but we could use the surgical technological innovation available only at the HM hospital in Spain to operate on her. So we asked them to come," Soldado explained.

This is how the young girl and her family arrived in Barcelona in early April. On June 10, she underwent the surgical operation at the HM Nou Delfos hospital. The doctors removed the malignant cells and repositioned the bone before performing a vascularized autograft of the periosteum, a membrane that covers the bone and contains a large amount of stem cells.

The operation was a success. After leaving the hospital, Soldado continues to monitor the young girl who will soon begin chemotherapy treatment, still at the HM hospital in Barcelona.