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Every morning, the 39-year-old walked a few hundred meters from Hue Central Hospital to a nearby market to buy vegetables and meat. He then returned to the hospital’s free community kitchen to cook lunch.

The daily food budget for him and his son is less than VND40,000 (US$1.5); the hospital provides electricity, water, and gas for free.

Phu and his family are from Tan Chu Village in Lung Phinh Commune. He and his wife support their three sons, a 19-year-old and 15-year-old twins, through farming.

In April 2025, he and his wife left their children at home and traveled to Hue to work in a factory, earning about VND10 million a month. Five months later, the couple learned that one of the twins, Trang Seo Chua, had persistent nosebleeds, quit their jobs, and returned home.

Doctors in Hanoi diagnosed the boy with small B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. He was referred to the Hue Central Hospital for treatment. Phu, who is not fluent in Vietnamese, did not realize how serious his son’s condition was when he first received the diagnosis.

“I thought he would be cured in a few weeks and then we could go home,” he says.

Phu had originally planned to buy their food, but learned that the hospital provided a free kitchen and registered to use it.

“Doctors advised us to cook our own meals to ensure food safety, and so I follow their advice to help my son stay strong for treatment,” he says.

He asked nurses about nutrition and observed other parents to learn how to choose suitable foods. On days when his son was not receiving medication, he shopped for ingredients and varied the menu to encourage him to eat.

Seo Chua’s hospital fees are covered because he is from a poor household and an ethnic minority. But even so, the family has had to borrow VND50 million from relatives after paying for genetic testing and some medications not covered by insurance.

They currently receive VND2 million a month from the hospital’s social work department and donors. To save money, Phu gives the better portions of the food he cooks to his son and eats rice, vegetables, and leftovers himself. He sleeps in the hospital corridor instead of renting accommodation that would cost VND3-4 million a month.

They have returned home only once, at the beginning of 2026, in the past nine months.

“A round-trip bus ticket for the two of us costs about VND2 million. The travel expenses are too high, so we stay here and save the money for treatment,” Phu says.

He plans to look for temporary work near the hospital once his son’s condition stabilizes.

Back home, his wife spends her days tending to the family’s fields and taking on odd jobs in the village. Their 19-year-old son is also working to help repay the VND50 million loan and send money to Hue for his younger brother’s medication.

Seo Chua says he misses home, school, and classmates and hopes to be discharged soon. The 15-year-old wants to finish high school and learn a trade so he can help support his family.

“No matter how difficult it is, I will do everything to cure my son,” Phu says.