Main fundraiser photo

Manny's Fight Against Thymic Carcinoma

Donation protected
Hi, I’m Kat and I’m Manny’s wife. I’m fundraising to help Manny with his fight against thymic carcinoma.

You’re probably thinking – “What’s thymic carcinoma? I’ve never heard of that.”

Neither have we…until last April 2019, when Manny was diagnosed with it, stage 4.

Most tumors that begin in the thymus are thymoma and less than 1 person per 1.5 million people develops thymoma. Thymic carcinoma is very rare, accounting for less than 1% of all tumors in the thymus.

Manny has been having shoulder and upper back pain for almost 2 years. The pain often radiates to his arms and hands. There is also that feeling of heaviness on his chest. After numerous visits to the GPs, repeated X-rays, ultrasounds, blood tests, ECGs, stress tests, 2D Echo – the doctors found nothing. All his tests were always normal. But the pain on his shoulders only grew worse along with the heaviness on his chest. Finally, one GP ordered a bone CT and the tumour was found. The biopsy and PET scans revealed that it was thymic carcinoma stage 4. They also found a metastasis on the hip bone.

The recommended treatment is radiotherapy to the chest then stereotactic radiotherapy on the hip bone.

Unfortunately after 3 months, Manny is still waiting for treatment. We are on the waiting list of Canberra’s public health system. All we can do is manage his pain, which is really bad in some days that he had to be admitted to the emergency department and be given morphine. He has taken an indefinite leave from work because of the pain. He also gets tired easily.

Meanwhile, there are bills to pay and medicines to buy which are not covered by Medicare. That's why we are asking for any support you can share with our family. More importantly, the funds we will raise will give us the financial capacity to look for better and faster treatment options in the future, instead of just helplessly waiting for the public health system. Self-funding cancer treatments is incredibly expensive but with your help and support we can explore all possible options without having to worry about the expenses. The next few months of treatment and recovery also means that Manny won't be able to go back to his part-time job.

It's going to be a long fight and Manny is determined to fight hard so he can spend more time with Mayumi, our 15 year old daughter. He wants to be there when she learns how to drive, when she goes to Uni and when she starts her career.

He also wants to continue to serve the community thru our church - the same community who is praying with us and giving us so much love and support. If all goes well, he would like to go back to the Philippines and continue his volunteer work where he was involved in several medical missions and rescue operations.



We were told that Manny's cancer is incurable. Your financial help will buy us more time, finance his medicines to improve his quality of life, and give us the capacity to try other means of treatment.

Thank you and I hope you can share this to your network.
Donate

Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $50 
    • 4 yrs
Donate

Organizer

Kat Esteves
Organizer
Amaroo ACT

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily.

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about.

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the  GoFundMe Giving Guarantee.