All sorts of memories and emotions whirled inside him. His fear of death and thirst for life had aroused complex feelings he’d never experienced before. The fact that the last moments of his life would be spent in pain added to his sorrow. The thought of his wife becoming a widow so young and his leaving her to raise two children by herself broke his heart and he couldn’t stem the flow of tears.

On this day, 33-year-old Rony Korkis, an Iraqi living in the United States of America, stood rooted to the spot as he held on to his biopsy result with shivering hands. He had just tested positive for Erdheim-Chester disease – a rare type of blood cancer that causes inflammation, tissue damage and organ failure, ultimately resulting in death. This condition is medically incurable and the research on it is limited as there are fewer than five hundred cases recorded worldwide.