Help for Sixteen Year Old Leukemia Patient

This is an attempt to disseminate information to get more people to pray for my niece who has cancer/leukemia.

Alleah Janine Reambillo, we call her AJ, was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia in 2001, she was nine years old at that time, a smart little girl who loves to draw and color and a consistent honor student in our local grade school. She went on remission with the help of oral medications (Glivec by Novartis) and in October of last year, her doctors gave her the permission to fly to Singapore for a final round of tests before they can give her a complete clearance.

She was supposed to fly with her dad this summer after she graduates from high school on April 3, she is also supposed to receive awards for being a student journalist and for being the school’s Ms. Alma Mater. Unfortunately, three weeks ago, my niece had high fever and my mom saw some bruises on her legs and arms again. She was rushed to the hospital and after a round of tests, it was discovered that something triggered the cancer to recur and it has mutated, it has become non-responsive to Glivec and from CML, it looks like it has now turned into Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). She is still confined at the Fe del Mundo Children’s Medical Center Foundation in Banawe St., Quezon City as of this writing.

AML is relatively curable, according to some research I did a few days ago, but it requires chemotherapy, transfusions and a host of other procedures. We do need financial assistance to get through this, her parents are ordinary call center agents and she has siblings who also need care and support, my other brother and sister are also pulling their resources to help out, but it isn’t enough. Conservatively, we need PhP150,000.00/ US$3,200.00 every month for the next six months at least. She needs 6 chemotherapy sessions, one of which was already done two weeks ago and several blood transfusions. She was also prescribed several antibiotics to ward off possible infections. Until she finishes with her 6th chemo, we won’t know for sure if the bad cell was arrested or not. If it was, then we’re probably good to go, if not, then we will probably be needing more chemo therapies. These are just intelligent guesses, of course we still need the doctors prognosis which we will have only when she finishes her 6th session.

In behalf of my family, I would like to ask for your help. We need leads for foundations or organizations that help support children afflicted with leukemia/cancer in the Philippines, and yes, financial assistance at this time is also badly needed. *But most of all*, we need prayers from everyone, please help us pray for my niece, please help us beg the Lord for His mercy on AJ. If you are a blogger and are reading this, please help spread the word so that we can get more people to pray for her.

I have blogged about her on After His Own Heart, there are also pictures of her in the hospital if you’d like to see, you can just click over.

Thank you so much.

In Christ,
Hazel Chua
Philippines