I hope that by contributing to my cause, you will help inspire my cousin to fight leukemia and live.
About her disease: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/leukemia-acutemyel...
In the past six months, three of my family members in the Philippines have been affected by cancer. First, my grandmother Lola Letty passed away on October 2013 by pancreatic cancer. Then, my great aunt Lola Precy who died of stage four breast cancer this March 2014. Now, my family just found out that my 12 year old cousin Christine has acute Leukemia, which is a cancer of the blood.
After finding out the news, I’ve been doing some research on the disease and her type of Leukemia actually spreads rapidly, which is why I want my family in the Philippines to have her treated, no matter what the cost. In order to save her, she either needs a bone marrow transplant or chemotherapy--which the doctors already confirmed. I've been browsing around for how much the treatments cost and I've mostly seen that costs go up to around $60,000 to $250,000 (for a bone marrow transplant). Looking at her parents’, my family, and my extended family’s financial situation, it is extremely difficult to pay for her upcoming medical bills, even if all of our family contributed. I remember that my parents, and my relatives from Australia spent all of our savings in prolonging my grandmother’s life on morphine, blood transfusions, and other medical bills for her cancer treatment. When we thought that it was all over, we are now faced with an even more difficult situation, but with very little amount to contribute
If you are reading this, please have it in your heart to help out and donate. Her parents, are modest hard working people, but they simply cannot afford her medical bills. Their family situation right now is that Tita Naida (my aunt) is left in the Philippines with the kids, including Christine, while Tito Vince (my uncle) is back from working in Saudi Arabia with his family.
It was only after all these instances of cancer did I realize how blessed I was to have the opportunity to have the privileges of living in America where people have access to advanced medical technology and health care. And since I am here, I would like to help and give back to my family who doesn't have as much opportunities as I have, which is why I am creating this fund for my 12 year old cousin who still has so many things to achieve in her lifetime, dreams to fulfill for herself and her siblings. All of the money that I receive from this donation will go to her treatment.
About Christine:
Since my family can only come back every 4-5 years to the Philippines, I rarely get to see or know my cousins. But, when I returned to Philippines summer 2013, Christine and the rest of our cousins greeted us warmly, as if we were always there. I remember her telling me about things she would like to do when she grows up, especially the part where she told me that she’d like to help her parents especially her mom in the future because she worked so hard, but had little pay to support her kids. Like me, Christine wants to give back to family.
In addition, when I took a walk with my cousins, we stopped by their house and I was really surprised that all my cousins in the Philippines lived in a one bedroom “hut” with no electricity, while I took my house for granted. Christine, along with the rest of my cousins were kind, welcoming, and humble, despite what little they had.
Please donate to my cause and share around the internet. All of the money that I will receive from this campaign will be for her treatment. I’m sure that she will appreciate the help that she receives. And I will be very grateful even if you could re-share my cause. Thank you so much!
If you donate, you can email me at rikkaguillen@gmail.com if you would like updates--and if my relatives in the Philippines could send them--pictures/ videos of Christine.