Ricardo Makyn - Prime Minister Bruce Golding speaking to Gary Buchanan during a visit at the National Chest Hospital earlier this week.

Marlon Vickerman, Staff Reporter

Last Monday, 19-year-old cancer patient Gary Buchanan was granted his last wish, to meet Prime Minister Bruce Golding, while he sat on his hospital bed.

Sadly, minutes before 1 a.m. yesterday, the teen took his last breath as he lost the fight with the disease.

In a release from Jamaica House yesterday, Golding expressed sympathy on the passing of the young man.

The prime minister said Buchanan had put up a brave fight and up to the end remained optimistic that through prayers, his situation would have changed.

"I extend to his mother and grandmother, who I met at his bedside, on Tuesday, my deepest sympathy," Golding said.

Buchanan's fight started in early 2009 when he discovered a lump on his right hand, near his wrist.

In an interview with THE STAR last year, the teen said that he initially ignored the bulge because it was not painful at the time. His concerns aroused sometime later, however, when a second swelling developed.

Buchanan said: "Dis one did have like a vein-look to it and it was discharging some *lo**-looking thing and it kept growing."

Two months, several medical checks and over $100,000 later, the lump was diagnosed as being cancerous.

The youngster opted to have a section of his hand amputated in a bid to slow down the spread of the cancer and ultimately help in his battle against the disease.

However, while the move bought Buchanan some time, it was not enough.

Last week, THE STAR offered to grant Buchanan the opportunity to meet anyone of his choice as his fight with the disease had become critical. He requested the presence of Prime Minister Golding and Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller.

Less than a week later, Golding, accompanied by the Minister of Health Rudyard Spencer and Chairman of the Board of the National Chest Hospital, Tanny Shirley, was at his bedside at the National Chest Hospital offering kind words while reassuring the youngster that they would do all that they could to help his fight.