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Baguio family reaches out to three young patients

BAGUIO CITY (April 19) — Unaffected by donor fatigue, a Baguio couple and their son reached out again last week with two pay-to-cash checks totaling P4,7OO, this time for three young patients.

‘The seriously ill patients and their parents will never know where the support came from. As in previous donations, the family of Samaritans requested anonymity.

The messenger was requested to deliver part of the amount to the most needy child cancer patient at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.

Dr. Claire Urbano, who is assigned at the cancer ward, recommended Steely Agustin Flores, a 13-year old boy battling leukemia.

“He’s our patient in need now,” Urbano said, adding that Steely had no money to complete his chemotherapy.

The cash support of P2,000 surprised Steely’s 42-year old mother Rebecca. The mother of six young kids who brought in her eldest from Sison, Pangasinan last Jan. 31, hardly knew anybody from Baguio and was at a loss on whom to turn to.

“Nagamit na namin ang lahat ng ipon namin at naibenta na rin namin ang mga kagamitan sa bahay para lang magamot ang aking anak,” she admitted., “Di namin alam kung paano kami magpapasalamat sa tulong na ito.”

Her husband Roldan, a 41 -year old part-time auto mechanic, stayed behind in Sison to look after the five other kids: Denver, 12; Danica, 8; Rolando, 5; Jericho, 2; and two-month old Angelo.

Later in the week, another distraught mother, 25-year old Jenny Cadiay of Camp 7, received P700. The amount will be for the medications of her youngest daughter, four-year old Janice, who is afflicted with cerebral palsy.

Aside from the child’s maintenance medications, Janice and her laborer-husband Gerry also have to scrounge for funds to pay P5,000 they owed to have Jenny undergo CT scan last month.

The Cadiays’ three other children, Geraldine, 10, and six-year old twins Kristyn and Kathleen, are under their grandmother’s care in Sablan, Benguet.

The remaining P2,000 will be for 13-year old Grisly Anayasan of San Carlos Heights who was born with a congenital heart defect and awaiting his schedule for surgery as a charity case at the Philippine Heart Center.

The eldest of three kids, Crisly was diagnosed for “TVA (tricuspid valve atesia), complicated by MGA, VSA without PS”.

His father Crisostomo is a construction laborer from Mt. Province while his mother Emilia is a housewife from Bakun, Benguet.

Doctors had repeatedly told the boy’s mother that surgery must be done soon but given the number of charity cases being handled by the heart center, his next check-up will still be in June. # Ramon Dacawi

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