Dear family/friends and anyone else who comes across this…

No one ever wants to start a GoFundMe. And it saddens me to have to write this up. My name is Leana and I’m starting this for my dear Aunt Divina Aswigue Fausto in the Philippines who has had an intracerebral haemorrhage AKA stroke at 46 years old.

On Tuesday 9/4 at 6am, she woke up screaming for help because she couldn’t feel one side of her body. As she was being taken to hospital by the ambulance, her level of consciousness was dropping. She became drowsy and was talking with slurred speech and was then intubated.

On the day this all happened, she was at Ilocos intending to attend a church wedding where she was part of the choir. The closest hospital available was a small regional private hospital. That’s where she was for some hours while waiting to be transferred to Baguio where she’s from and where there was a medical team that can look after her. Now she’s admitted at a hospital in Baguio where she is going to have surgery to evacuate the bleed to relieve pressure off her brain.

Before all this, she was already battling ovarian cancer which was diagnosed in 2022. She’s had surgery for this and was actively undergoing chemotherapy.

She’s a sister, daughter, aunty, friend and a single mother to one daughter. She’s a fulltime volunteer deaconess. She’s a God-fearing and God-loving woman who devotes most of her time to ministry work, having gone on multiple mission trips around the Philippines to share the gospel. Despite her cancer diagnosis and how taxing her treatments, regular blood tests and follow up scans have been, she still maintains a faithful and positive attitude that inspires those around her. She’s always been a warm and loving person, and she’s the type of person that handles the most difficult situations with grace and always chooses to see the good in people.

In the Philippines, there is no luxury of Medicare. Being admitted in a public hospital and taking up a bed in itself is expensive. Expenses are multiplied with the upfront costs of medications, consumables, multiple scans, blood tests, surgeries, doctor’s fees, lab fees, etcetera. Unfortunately, just transferring my aunt from the first hospital to the hospital she’s at now was delayed because they wanted the bill fully paid or at least an 80% deposit. And this is quite early on on the journey to treatment/recovery.

Again, I never thought I would ever ask people for money online but my family in the Philippines are already exhausting resources, scrambling to come up with what they can, taking turns in shifts to care for her bedside as there are no AINs (assistant in nursing) in the Philippines.

I’m writing this so that if this message comes across anyone with just half a dollar to spare, know that you are helping my younger cousin Tweeden look after her mum. She recently graduated as Cum Laude in her Economics degree and she won’t be working for a while as she has and will be staying at her mum’s bedside caring for her. I started this GoFundMe because it’s not available to be started up in the Philippines. All donations will be sent to my cousin for all medical expenses and I will keep this page updated.

Please don’t feel obliged but if you’ve read this far and wish to donate, any amount is greatly appreciated and on behalf of the family, thank you so much for your compassion and generosity. If you are unable to donate, we would kindly appreciate you sharing this post or joining in prayers. Thank you for your time reading this. God bless you