For Anika Haroon, the worries of life are just a little different from what her friends go through. A student of Class X of the Engineering University School, this 16-year-old wonders whether she will be able to walk again. Struck with Osteosarcoma, or Bone Cancer, Anika is now moving about in a wheelchair with her family's help.

"Anika was first diagnosed with Juvenile Monoarthritis in December 2005 by a doctor in BSMMU (PG Hospital)," says Selina Chowdhury Mili, Anika's mother. "The professor who diagnosed the disease is highly respected in the medical profession today and we had felt lucky that he was providing Anika with medical treatment."

Anika was treated for Juvenile Monoarthritis for several months upon the doctor's advice, until an X-ray report revealed traces of Cancer in her left thigh and lungs. "We felt as if the ground had slipped from underneath our feet," says Mili. "Even today, I keep wondering as to how a dignified and capable professor could make this mistake and keep Anika on the wrong treatment for months!"

An accomplished artist and a printmaker, Mili, and her businessman husband had to come up with quick decisions. They moved from their home in Bakshibazar to Dhanmondi to Mili's sister's apartment. "Anika can't walk," explains Mili. "This building has an elevator and a clinic right in front of it. Emergencies, which seem to be rising every other moment in our lives, can be handled properly from here."

They finally contacted the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai and took Anika there immediately. "Dr Agarwal, who was dealing with the situation then, kept asking us why we had not bothered to bring Anika to the hospital just a couple of months earlier," says teary-eyed Mili. "A lot could have been done to help her if she was just diagnosed with the right ailment at the right time."

Mili's 6-year-old-son does not go to school anymore. "We tried our best to keep things normal in our lives," says Mili. "But it's easier said than done. We keep moving from one place to another, one hospital to another, one country to another in hopes for proper treatment for our daughter. Our close relatives are taking turns looking after our son and I feel terrible about having to ignore him."

It was Dr Agarwal's idea to have Anika checked and operated in Canada. "Anika was born in Canada in 1990. She holds dual nationality -- Bangladeshi and Canadian," explains Mili. "We thought it would be a good idea as well to have foreign experts take a look at her, when Dr Agarwal almost immediately got in touch with Dr J Warden in Toronto. He agreed to operate on Anika for which her uncle, a Canadian citizen and a resident of Toronto, arranged and updated her health-card."

However, luck ran out on them once again when the Canadian High Commission refused to give Anika's parents visas to travel with her. "At least one of us would have to be with Anika throughout the treatment process," says Mili. A strong reason behind this decision taken by the Canadian High Commission is probably the assumption that Mili and her husband had resided in Canada for three years in the early 90's, "a time when just about everyone was fleeing to foreign countries for a better life," according to Mili. They were hoping to eventually become citizens of the country, especially after Anika was born. However, it did not happen and they had to leave the country. "We never tried to go after that," exclaims Mili. "The High Commission probably thinks that we won't return to the country after Anika's treatment, but that's not true. They can grant at least one of us a visa on humanitarian grounds, so that we can accompany our child for the operation."

In spite of all the obstacles that they seem to be facing, Mili and her family are still hoping for a miracle to happen. Mili sold all her prints and paintings that she has been saving up for an exhibition and her friends and relatives are helping out with the finances as well. "It has been a crazy year for us," says Mili.

With doctors advising the wrong treatment and bureaucracy becoming a big obstacle to Anika's treatment, Mili worries whether Anika will be able to walk again. "I wonder when I'll go back to school," says a smiling Anika, whose lively attitude used to keep her friends, teachers and the people around her alive in the true sense of the word. Even though her body looks frail and her heart is still looking for answers, she does not let her spirit wither away and looks at every day with fresh hope and inspiration.