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Tarik Bensalem loves his Lego figures and spends much of his time these days building them.
“They’re really fun to make, actually,” he told Global News from a desk in his mother’s basement in Vaudreuil-Dorion, west of Montreal.
It’s something the nineteen-year-old has enjoyed since he was a child, but these days there’s another reason he does it.
“Because I have neuropathy from chemotherapy,” he explained, “and it often times helps to stimulate your fingers by doing certain small activities.”
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Bensalem has cancer, which he’s been battling for about two years.
“It’s rhabdomyosarcoma, but specifically alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma or ARMS,” the teen explained.
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The disease has spread to his bone marrow and he’s now been home for nearly a week for palliative care.
“It’s just been really devastating and hard,” his mother Donna Davison said, sobbing. “I mean, he’s 19.”
As a single mother, Davison has been taking care of Bensalem mostly by herself, and said she has felt alone.
Recently, though, things started to change.
Weeks ago she reached out online to get some company.
“So I joined a group and there was only one person that I clicked with,” she said.
That person was Sandra Ackland, also a single mom.
She was so moved by Davison’s situation, she posted an appeal on Facebook for people to cook meals for the family, to allow mom and son more time together.
According to Davison, the response was stunning.
“Now (Tarik) gets such a kick out of opening the door and finding food at the door,” she laughed.
“It’s really funny,” her son agreed.
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According to Davison, she hasn’t had to cook for a week and credits Ackland’s intervention.
“I wish she was there before,” she laughed, fighting back tears, “because I was so alone during all of it and now I feel so much support.”
Wednesday, the two met in person for the first time after more than a week of virtual friendship.
Ackland said when Davison told her about her son, she couldn’t just stand by.
“I’m a mom and I can’t imagine going through what she’s going through with her son,” she explained shortly after meeting Davison and her son.
Ackland is not surprised there’s been so much support from the community.
“It just shows that there’s still good in the world when there’s so much going on,” she said.
