Help Blanca beat cancer
Donation protected
Hello all,
My name is Begoña Morell and I am from Madrid, Spain. My sister Blanca Morell has been diagnosed with a very rare kind of cancer and would like to share her story with you.
Any donations will go directly to help our parents pay for the medical expenses of her illness.
We appreciate your support, prayers, and caring messages more than you can imagine. We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
————
Here is what Blanca would like to transmit to you:
My name is Blanca Morell, I am 22 years old, I live in Madrid, Spain, and I have been diagnosed with cancer. I have a type of cancer in my spinal cord called Diffuse Anaplastic Astrocytoma, grade III. It is a very, very unusual cancer, as it is commonly developed by elderly people in the brain, not by young people in the spinal cord.
Since it is located in my spinal cord (the part of the nervous system that transmits all of the signals to my extremities) it cannot be operated on, and when treated with radiation or chemotherapy, there is a risk that I will become quadriplegic. Being an atypical cancer, where the nervous system cells degenerate and mutate into fast-growing malignant cells, there is not a definitive treatment or solution. In this type of cancer the malignant cells mix with healthy cells along the entire spinal cord, making it very difficult to eliminate it without damaging the healthy cells.
I have already lost sensitivity in my feet and legs, I don't feel anything below my chest, and I cannot walk due to a surgery I went through to be able to do a biopsy, so I must now move in a wheelchair.
One of the few treatment options that can be used to fight this cancer is Proton (Radiation) Therapy. It is a very complex and expensive treatment that requires special facilities that cannot be found in Spain, and only exist in very few places in the U.S. and in Europe.
Thanks to the love of my parents and their sacrifices, we have moved to Boston so that I can be treated in Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where Proton Therapy is available and where there are some of only a few professionals in the world with experience in treating this cancer.
The treatment consists on 42 sessions, and costs $300,000 which my parents must pay out of pocket (since neither public nor private insurances in Spain cover these treatments). In addition, there are other expenses such as appointments with my neuro-oncologist and radiotherapist, MRIs, CT simulations, etc. that raise the cost to over $400,000. Additionally, we need to rent an apartment in Boston for the two months that I must stay for my treatment.
I would like to collect funds to help my parents pay for the medical costs of my illness. Thank you so much for your donations and continued support.
May God repay you
My name is Begoña Morell and I am from Madrid, Spain. My sister Blanca Morell has been diagnosed with a very rare kind of cancer and would like to share her story with you.
Any donations will go directly to help our parents pay for the medical expenses of her illness.
We appreciate your support, prayers, and caring messages more than you can imagine. We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
————
Here is what Blanca would like to transmit to you:
My name is Blanca Morell, I am 22 years old, I live in Madrid, Spain, and I have been diagnosed with cancer. I have a type of cancer in my spinal cord called Diffuse Anaplastic Astrocytoma, grade III. It is a very, very unusual cancer, as it is commonly developed by elderly people in the brain, not by young people in the spinal cord.
Since it is located in my spinal cord (the part of the nervous system that transmits all of the signals to my extremities) it cannot be operated on, and when treated with radiation or chemotherapy, there is a risk that I will become quadriplegic. Being an atypical cancer, where the nervous system cells degenerate and mutate into fast-growing malignant cells, there is not a definitive treatment or solution. In this type of cancer the malignant cells mix with healthy cells along the entire spinal cord, making it very difficult to eliminate it without damaging the healthy cells.
I have already lost sensitivity in my feet and legs, I don't feel anything below my chest, and I cannot walk due to a surgery I went through to be able to do a biopsy, so I must now move in a wheelchair.
One of the few treatment options that can be used to fight this cancer is Proton (Radiation) Therapy. It is a very complex and expensive treatment that requires special facilities that cannot be found in Spain, and only exist in very few places in the U.S. and in Europe.
Thanks to the love of my parents and their sacrifices, we have moved to Boston so that I can be treated in Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where Proton Therapy is available and where there are some of only a few professionals in the world with experience in treating this cancer.
The treatment consists on 42 sessions, and costs $300,000 which my parents must pay out of pocket (since neither public nor private insurances in Spain cover these treatments). In addition, there are other expenses such as appointments with my neuro-oncologist and radiotherapist, MRIs, CT simulations, etc. that raise the cost to over $400,000. Additionally, we need to rent an apartment in Boston for the two months that I must stay for my treatment.
I would like to collect funds to help my parents pay for the medical costs of my illness. Thank you so much for your donations and continued support.
May God repay you
Organizer
Bego Morell Ariza
Organizer
Boston, MA
