Two cancer patients become youngest traffic police officers for a day

AMMAN — Eight-year-old Yazan Hussein, who suffers from muscle cancer, had long wished to become a traffic police officer and write a traffic ticket for his father. 

His dream came true when he joined police on Wednesday, helping them direct traffic at the capital's busy Interior Ministry Circle. 

Yazan was always fascinated by traffic officers, and whenever he saw them, he used to rush to say hello and chat with them for a while, according to his father, Omar.

As soon as Yazan arrived at the vital intersection in uniform, he was joined by members of the traffic police, who taught him the basics of his new job. 

The youngest Jordanian traffic policeman began raising his hand to direct traffic with great excitement, but his most memorable experience of the day was writing his father a traffic ticket.

"I felt happy being a traffic officer today because I helped them direct the traffic to avoid car accidents," Yazan told The Jordan Times as he took a break before resuming his duties. 

Yazan was organising traffic with seven-year-old Kariman Alagmeh, who suffers from leukaemia. The Public Security Department gave the two children the chance to live their dreams.

Their wishes were among the list of dreams within the King Hussein Cancer Foundation’s (KHCF) “Dreams Come True” programme.

Rasha Al Jazi, a senior coordinator at KHCF, said the foundation makes a monthly list of the dreams of young cancer patients and shares it with donors and supporters of the programme to make them come true. 

“When we received the wishes of the two children, we shared them with the PSD and they did not hesitate to make them a reality,” Jazi told The Jordan Times.

She said the programme was launched in 2006 to boost the morale of children who suffer from cancer and make their parents happy. 

It has so far achieved 740 wishes since 2014, according to the KHCF. 

Jazi said the programme also includes holding birthday parties and other celebrations for patients. 

Brig. Gen. Hani Majali, director of the Central Traffic Department, expressed hope that the children will get better and beat the disease.  

“They wanted to be the colleagues of traffic officers for a day, and I hope they will be able to beat cancer and have the chance to become proper traffic officers in the future,” Majali said.

Nariman Khatib, Kariman’s mother, said her daughter used to tell her sisters that she wanted to be a traffic officer.

“She used to jokingly tell them that she wanted to put them in jail,” the mother said with a smile.