ORANGE : A Good Rx: Loved Ones From Afar

Eight-year-old Marjan Mirshafiee has brain cancer, but that didn’t stop her from hoisting her baby brother into the air and kissing him on the cheeks when he, her grandmother and sister arrived Tuesday at Los Angeles International Airport.

A patient at Children’s Hospital of Orange County since November, the girl had asked the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Orange County to fly the three from her native Iran to Southern California so that they could join her and her parents as she undergoes treatment.

“This is good,” Marjan said, a Daisy Duck hat covering her head left hairless by chemotherapy. She smiled broadly as she squeezed her brother, Ali, 2, her sister, Maryam, 10, and grandmother Fatemeh.

“I am very happy,” she said.

For two hours she had paced about the terminal--under the eye of her father, Behroz, a university professor in Iran, and her mother, Farzy--while the Iranian visitors cleared U.S. Customs.

Meanwhile, Marjan munched M&Ms; she had been saving for her brother.

“When she was sick back in Iran, all she would eat is M&Ms;, and her brother would come and she would give some to him,” her mother said. “Because she doesn’t have any hair now, she is afraid that he will not recognize her and that the candy will remind him.”

During her wait, Marjan would peer down the stairwell that arriving passengers climb to come to the terminal from Customs. Her family says she has a lot of energy during the weeks that she is not undergoing treatment.

“I miss them,” she said as she climbed on some railings. “I want to play house and Barbies with my sister. I can’t wait.”

Her wait at LAX may have seemed long to Marjan, but it was short compared to the seven months of government red tape that had to be surmounted by Make-A-Wish volunteers to bring the three family members here. The group, which grants the requests of children with life-threatening illnesses, was hampered by the lack of diplomatic relations between the U. S. and Iran.

“But this just shows that when an ill child is involved, there is nothing that cannot be overcome,” said Kevin Sheridan, a coordinator for the group.

Marjan’s journey to Orange County began last fall when she started suffering headaches. Her parents took her to Germany, where she first underwent brain surgery to remove a tumor. But the tumor reappeared a month later and her parents brought her to CHOC after the hospital was recommended by an Orange County relative.

“Since we have been here, Marjan’s tumor has shrunk 60% and we think it is going to get small enough that they can operate and take it out,” her father said.

Marjan plans to take her brother and sister to Disneyland, Magic Mountain and Knott’s Berry Farm this weekend, although she was trying Tuesday to talk her father into taking them to one of the amusement parks today.

“She can’t wait,” her father said. “She is so happy that they will be here.”