Help Marcelo Fight Aggressive Eye Cancer

Hello everyone, my name is Carlos Perez-Turcios. I am Marcelo's uncle. My nephew is 6 years old, a few months younger than my youngest son. It breaks my heart every time I think that he hasn't been able to have a day of his life as a normal kid: playing, learning, eating normal food, having normal relationships, attending school regularly without a cloud of uncertainty about what his future may be, if he will have to go back to the hospital again, having more chemotherapies, intra-arterial procedures, radiation therapy, hopping on planes, seeing doctors, and at his age understanding that his life is constantly threatened by ocular cancer.

Marcelo was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma (cancer in both eyes). The cancer was aggressive from the beginning, forcing my youngest sister, Maria del Carmen, and my brother-in-law, Luis Pedro, to make a decision no parent should face with their firstborn child: the removal of one of his eyes.

At the age of 2, Marcelo was sent to the surgery room to have his right eye removed, all of this after a year of intense chemotherapies, radiotherapies, and intra-arterial interventions. All of those months trapped in the hospital, for nothing.

Now, Marcelo has an opportunity to fight cancer. He was accepted for treatment by Dr. Shields, Director of Ocular Oncology at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. Dr. Shields is a renowned physician in ocular oncology. She and her team of experts have examined Marcelo's case and have determined he might have a fighting chance.

This chance has a very expensive cost, and it's $160,000 approximately.

Marcelo lives in Guatemala, and he doesn't have insurance. All costs will be covered out of pocket, bringing an incredible level of stress to his parents and the extended community who is supporting Marcelo in Guatemala.

Please help with whatever you can and help us spread the message to help Marcelo and his family reach this goal.

Carlos Perez-Turcios