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Mighty Eli's Medical Fund

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Hi, I am Cynthia and I would like to share with you the battle my friend's son is fighting. My friend's name is Jan and I would like to share her story (her FB page is "Warriors for Mighty Eli", too):

Hello, my name is Jan. I am a single mom gifted with an amazing 10-year-old son named Eli. Like any mother, my child is my entire world. I work hard to give him the best future. I want him to grow up and not experience the hardships I had in life: difficulty in paying off school, not having a house of our own, and starting a career from scratch--that is, from being a call center agent to being a sales agent. When I had Eli at a young age, I promised myself that he will have a life where he can be whatever he wants to be. I will support his dreams no matter what.

Eli is the best son any mother can ask for. He is mature for his age and understands I have to be absent at times. He is very kindhearted and would be emotional when he sees touching stories on TV. He is also a consistent honors student and dreams of becoming an architect. In short, life was good. We may be far from the dream that I have, but we were on track.

Then October 31, 2016 happened. A fever, which prompted me to bring Eli to the hospital, turned out to be Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). The dreaded A-M-L: the most fatal of all blood cancers. How can this happen? Eli was at the peak of his health and rarely gets sick. How come the doctors are telling me he may only have eight months to live? I was devastated and confused, but most of all, heartbroken for my little boy who was inside the room patiently waiting to find out what is making him sick. I asked the doctors, what's the plan? What can we do?

AML, an aggressive cancer, has a survival rate of only 30%. It means that only 3 out of 10 people get to survive AML. However, according to the doctors, a stem cell transplant will give him a 70% chance of survival. Seventy percent. From the 30% they were telling me, I started to hope.  And from that glimmer of hope, our journey to find new hope for AML began.

A Brief Timeline of Developments:

-December 1: We found that Eli was resistant to the first chemotherapy. We were transferred to what is considered the best hospital in the Philippines as the hospital has a team of doctors regarded as most capable of handling Eli's condition.

-December 10: Start of second chemo cycle using the British protocol. Second attempt to put AML in remission to proceed to transplant.

-December 29: Eli was found to have a genetic mutation that explains why he was resistant to chemotherapy.

-January 15: Second chemotherapy cycle was again a failure. Eli's blood count still showed cancer cells that are multiplying aggressively, from a 2% count to a 97% count within days. We were offered the final option of the third chemotherapy cycle that will use the FLAG-Ida protocol, what is considered the best and last resort for Eli to have remission. Fludarabine, a drug not available in the Philippines, will be used for the chemo cycle.

-January 19: Eli's 10th birthday. He was granted a four day vacation to celebrate his birthday outside the hospital with family and friends.

-January 24: Eli's return to the hospital and start of the third chemo cycle. The third chemo cycle will take another 5 weeks.

-March 4: We found out that Eli's third chemo has also failed and he also developed pneumonia.  He was diagnosed to have refractory leukemia, a leukemia that cannot be treated

-March 8: A miracle happened. Eli's pneumonia is somehow improving. We started to hope again. If Eli's pneumonia can be managed, he can be subjected to a fourth chemo cycle with a novel drug recently approved by the US FDA.

Please join our day to day journey towards Eli's journey in finding new hope for AML. Eli has always refused to be defined by cancer and instead, faced each day with joy and courage. He deserves a chance to fight this dreadful disease.

Your support to his journey means a bigger possibility for him to continue his treatment.  Right now, that's the biggest blessing we can ask for. That we will not go home and declare surrender.

For local donations:

Bank of the Philippine Islands
Account Name: Jan Nicola Recio Marfil
Account Type: Savings
Account Number: 2679-0978-17

Banco de Oro
Account Name: Jan Nicola Recio Marfil
Account Type: Savings
Account Number: [phone redacted]-5282-2
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Donations 

  • Wendy Desmoni
    • $5 
    • 6 yrs
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Organizer

Cynthia Molina
Organizer
Arden, NV

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