Teenager with liver cancer given chance to meet JLS (From Harrow Times)

Teenager with liver cancer meets JLS and Leona Lewis thanks to Rays of Sunshine

12:46pm Tuesday 12th June 2012 in News By Anna Slater

A teenager with a liver tumour was left starstruck when he met pop boy band JLS last week.

Wasim Omer-Jin, of Spring Way, West Harrow, has spent the last seven years in and out of hospital after being diagnosed with psoriasis for the liver when he was ten.

But after a liver transplant in 2010 gave him a “new lease of life”, he was diagnosed with a rare liver tumour in November.

Rays of Sunshine, a charity granting wishes to children with life-limiting illnesses, gave him the chance to meet JLS at a charity concert last Thursday.

He said: “It was amazing meeting the band, I know all their music and they are really cool people. I spoke to them for ages, they were so nice.

“I felt very inspired by them because it was a nice reward after everything I’ve been through.”

He also met Leona Lewis and Conor Maynard at the concert planned by Rays of Sunshine at the Royal Albert Hall.

But this isn’t the first time the brave 17-year-old has hung out with the stars. In November, he was jumped at the chance when Rays of Sunshine sent him to meet his hero, world-famous chef Gordon Ramsey.

The Arsenal supporter, who also suffers from colitis and an auto-immune condition, has now been forced to take a year off college as he undergoes chemotherapy, because the tumour cannot be operated on.

“I was feeling very phase when I had my liver transplant, so it was great coming out of hospital feeling healthy again.

“But when I found out I had a tumour in my liver it was the most devastating news ever.”

His mother, Shaheen, said her son has come a long way and that she is incredibly proud of him.

“It was horrible finding out a tumour attacked his liver, he had been doing so well since the transplant. It just all seems very surreal.

She added that the work the charity does is touching and wanted to thank them for giving her son a permanent smile.

“Waseem is an amazing little boy, he takes so much medication but never complains. He’s a little fighter and I know he will get through this.”