Inspiring boy helps Rochan Pinho has his own worries.
New York victims
as he fights cancer
The young man from Pearl City
Highlands is doing his part
by selling homemade buttonsBy Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.comThe fifth-grader at Pearl City Highlands Elementary School was diagnosed with brain and inoperable spinal cancer almost three years ago. His chemotherapy treatments have given him kidney and gall stones.
But instead of dwelling on his own troubles, he has focused his attention on the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He is making and selling buttons to raise money for the American
Cancer Society to help people in New York.
"There are people over there that are more sick than me," he said. "I wanted to help them out."
Rochan said he was concerned for those who lost loved ones in the attacks. "More people are sad 'cause they don't know if the person was alive," he said.
Watching television news coverage inspired Rochan to take action and he said the ideas for the buttons "just kind of popped into my head."
"He's a very sensitive kid," said his father, Michael Pinho. "I guess it's everything he's been through. He knows deep inside he, he's got a lot less time."He's trying to give all of himself to all of the people in New York," he said.
Pinho said it took Rochan 12 to 18 hours to make more than 300 buttons, which he designed on a computer and pressed himself.
Since Saturday he has been in front of the Longs Drug Store in the Pearl City Shopping Center every day and has collected more than $300.
His father sits in his van and watches Rochan from the parking lot.
The hours have taken their toll on Rochan, Pinho said.
"Yesterday he was so exhausted and falling asleep."
However, Pinho said, "when he says he's not going to give up, he's not going to give up."
