Help Christian Beat Leukemia (ALL Ph positive)

Hi! My name is Ivee, and I am the eldest of 3 siblings. I am raising funds for my sweet younger brother, Christian Bernal (46 years old), who lives in the Philippines. He became a person with disability after surviving his previous illness of Transverse myelitis (with Shingles). Unfortunately, since then, he was left severely immunocompromised from which he never fully recovered.

Eight years later, he was diagnosed with another dreadful disease, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) with positive Philadelphia chromosome. This is a rare subtype of the most common childhood cancer, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Being positive with the Philadelphia chromosome means that it can cause the white blood cells to become cancerous, and chemotherapy will only cause many complications and result in a very poor prognosis. He was given only two treatment options to have a good chance of survival. First was the bone marrow transplant with a fully matched donor (but no one in our family is a match for him) or five months of Immunotherapy with Blincyto + Ponatinib.

The high cost of hospitalization plus medications are difficult to cover. We are going for the Immunotherapy (BiTE) because the chance for having a 100% match for bone marrow transplant in his case is now small. The Blincyto medications with 5 cycles will cost approximately 15 million pesos (USD 286K / EUR 271K / SEK 2.8 million), not including the maintenance medication needed for five years. We have successfully raised the 3 cycles for my brother and we needed your help so he can finish the 2 remaining cycles (approximately we need 72,000 Pounds or 80,000 Euros).

With the private health insurance (HMO) already exhausted and the whole family’s finances are already depleted, we are barely keeping pace with the treatments.

We are knocking on your kind hearts for help financially (any amount you can give will go a long way), by sharing our story with others who can help us, or even by donating Blincyto medication if you are in a position to do so. We will be forever grateful for your generosity and kindness. #battleleukemiaforChris