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Pope greets young Ukrainian cancer survivor as he leaves hospital
October 19, 2026
» Continue to this story on Vatican News
CWN Editor's Note: As he left Gemelli Hospital on October 17, Pope Leo XIV spoke with a 13-year-old Ukrainian cancer survivor whom he first met last December.
The Pontiff’s embrace last December gave the teenager, whose first name is Vavara, “the strength to overcome the illness that, fortunately, I have now beaten,” she recalled.
Vavara said she “wanted to come to Rome to pray for him beneath his window and return that important embrace,” along with the wish that “you, too, will overcome this moment and continue your work of spreading the Gospel.”
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