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How does the article ‘Boy needing urgent cancer surgery vanishes’ inform and entertain its reader?

The title is what immediately draws us in to the story. The use of emotive language ‘urgent’ makes us want to find out what is happening. The fact that it is urgent cancer treatment that he needs instantly makes our heart go out to him. The noun ‘boy’ is associated with youth and vulnerability which makes us sympathise for him. The word vanished also makes the story sound almost exciting in a way. The sub-heading includes the boy’s age, “A 10-year-old boy”. The fact that he is so young again makes the reader sympathise and they then, out of a sense of obligation, feel the need to finish the story for him. “Will die a brutal and agonising death”, this line obviously is going to affect any reader, not only does it state he will die, but that it will be ‘brutal’ and ‘antagonising’. These are not words that I would associate with a child, and so as a reader I would continue to read and be drawn in by this story so that I could, in my mind, find a way to help this child. They also do not name the child, which again draws the reader into the story and it gives it a sense of mystery.

Throughout the article short anecdotes are given “the boy, who had lived in England with his parents for two years”. This lets the reader get to know the boy and his life before all of this happened. There are also a lot of facts and statistics in the article “the surgery could last as long as 12 hours”