Faizal Khamisa: Story of Perseverance and Positive Attitude

My name is Faizal Khamisa. I am an Ismaili Muslim from Mississauga, Ontario now 4th year at the University of Western Ontario studying Psychology and serving as campus jamati Mukhisaeb.

My story is that of perseverance. At the age of 16 in 2005, the summer before my grade 12 year, I was diagnosed with a form of cancer that caused me to miss 8 weeks of school consecutively. I was determined to continue my schooling through this illness in the hopes of showing people that obstacles arise, and they force you to continue living your life. Since the diagnoses, I had 2 years of chemotherapy and a number of setbacks. I was forced to have emergency double hip surgery at 18 years old because of the side effects of treatment, as well as shoulder surgery at 19, with all joints on the verge of collapsing.

This illness served as the perfect opportunity to reach out to the Community, especially the many young children I had worked with over the years, and show them through my experience that perseverance and a positive attitude are the most essential keys to your success and future. I tried to show that despite the severity of the situation at hand: you yourself have the ability to make the best from it.

I started my own Inspirational Speaking venture, called In Your Hands Inspirational Speaking (first speech video seen here–> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_35kJEmSr0), and have spread my word to over 5000 people in the last 4 years. I have also started my own motivational website – www.faizalkhamisa.com, hosted a charity soccer challenge in conjunction with the Childhood Cancer Foundation of Canada (www.iyhsoccerchallenge.com), and tried to spread my slogan of “Create A Good Day”.

Essentially, I am not attempting to promote myself, but the message of positive attitude and creating a good day, and I hope this forum can help spread the message through my story.

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Note from Ismailimail: We found this story of perseverance and human aspirations to be overwhelmingly positive in Faizal’s own words, hence we have shared it as is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_35kJEmSr0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr_qNhnQd68