Children's Bridge Foundation

To donate by cheque, please mail your cheque to
Children’s Bridge Foundation,
Attention: Kate Maslen
1400 Clyde Avenue, Suite 221,
Ottawa, Ontario, K2G3J2
and write "Son Pham" on the memo line.

To make a donation on-line to help Son Hoang Pham , click here.
In the "Fund Designation" field, choose "Son Pham"

Download a PDF info sheet on Son Pham
Updated Jan 10/2008

For a detailed cronicle of Son Pham's incredible journey, please click here.

At the Hai Duong Orphanage in Vietnam, a special little boy stood shyly at the back of a group of children. A huge tumour, a vascular abnormality, covered one side of face, almost obscuring his nose and mouth, but his eyes shone with hope.

When Kate Maslen, Executive Director of the Children’s Bridge Foundation, returned home to Canada after visiting the orphanage in March 2006, she couldn’t get the little boy out of her mind. With the Foundation’s President, Olwyn Walter, she arranged for 10-year-old Son Pham to go the children’s hospital in Hanoi for tests.

Son was born with the vascular abnormality, and his parents abandoned him to the orphanage when he was three. By late 2006, the tumour had grown considerably, and the opening in Son’s mouth had become dangerously small. He was having trouble eating. Sadly, the doctors in Hanoi could not perform such difficult corrective surgery. A team of visiting American doctors administered treatment – injections so painful that three doctors had to hold Son while the fourth gave the shot.

Son sent a note to Kate Maslen. Translated, it read: Aunt Kate, Please help me, Son Pham.

The Foundation launched a special appeal to help Son Pham, and the response from Canadians across the country was overwhelming. Thanks to thousands of generous gifts from individuals, families, business and the media, the Foundation was able to bring Son, his nanny and the orphanage director to Canada.

Son arrived in Ottawa on Canada Day 2007 and celebrated his first Canadian holiday before going through months of difficult testing and evaluation at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. In November, the Foundation got the heartbreaking news that the hospital would not be able to treat him.

As word spread of Son’s sad news, e-mails and phone calls began to pour into Children’s Bridge Foundation telling Son not to give up hope and urging the Foundation to look for treatment in the United States.

Within a month, world-class hospitals in both New York and Boston had submitted proposals based on Son’s detailed medical records from Toronto. As leaders in treating vascular anomalies, both hospitals had the medical expertise and desire to help Son.

While in Canada, Son in staying with a Children’s Bridge family in Halifax, so the Foundation decided to have him treated at Children’s Hospital Boston, near to his Halifax home and with close ties to the IWK Health Centre there.

It will be a difficult journey for Son - the first step will be a tracheaostomy so that his airway will be open during the following treatments.

It will also be enormously expensive. Initial estimate for Son’s treatment was $700,000 but thanks to the Boston doctors who generously donated their services and to Ray Tye Medical Aid Foundation who contributed $150,000 to hospital costs, that estimate is now down to $200,000. The Children’s Bridge Foundation wants to pay this cost and the estimated $75,000 more for his on-going care, travel and living expenses during treatment.

Son is a strong, brave boy. He knows there are difficult times ahead, but he is determined to do what he needs to do. This Christmas, when it came time for the children in his class to perform for the holiday concert, Son at first was reluctant to stand up on stage in front of strangers. But soon he bravely joined his classmates and stayed for the whole length of the concert. There were many tears among the parents in the audience that day

The goal for Children’s Bridge Foundation is to raise all the money needed for Son’s treatment and care. Every dollar raised will go directly toward Son’s medical care and living expenses. If for any reason, we raise more than the amount he needs, every remaining dollar will be contributed to Son Pham’s Vietnam home, the Hoi Duong social Service Centre.

A donation of any amount will move us one step closer to paying for Son’s long and difficult treatment.