This used to my my blog. Well technically it still is. But rather than keeping it as a collection of random thoughts and meanderings I thought I’d rebuild it from scratch and focus on what’s bugging me… or rather, us.
Luth, my partner, my wife, my lover, my friend, and mother to our kids, has lung cancer. She was diagnosed back in early 2007. She has gone through surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. We thought we had it licked… but early this year we discovered it was back. So she went through a new round of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. We found out 10 days ago that we need to escalate her treatment protocol – the good news is that it is way easier than chemo: all she needs to do is to take the meds orally on a daily basis. The bad news is that it will be very expensive medicine. It’s either Iressa or Tarceva, and these things will cost around 130-140K pesos monthly.
Last May, some close friends initiated a call to officemates, ex-officemates, and other people who’ve pretty much known us as a couple… and our friends have responded well. Now that I’m the only one working, my income is barely enough to get us through. It really has been mainly through the support of relatives and friends that we’ve been able to meet the heavy demands of cancer treatment.
Because of the new treatment protocols, I now need to reach out to more people. We will know after a month’s treatment if the new meds will work. And if they do (and of course we’re hoping and praying they will), she will need to take them for at least 3 months. So my direct appeal is for some contributions from you. I know times are hard, but perhaps since I hope to reach a lot more people, then a few pesos or dollars monthly for the next 3 months will be ok. Hey and if you have sufficient influence on Astra Zeneca (for Iressa) or Roche (for Tarceva), or know of any means for us to get these drugs cheaper I’d be very happy know about it.
I don’t really want to post my bank account numbers here. Please send me an email if you wish to contact me. You can simply click on ‘Contact Cho’ and send me a message there and I’ll contact you. Or you can send me email direct at choenriquez via yahoo.com. I have also requested some friends to help me out with this: Jona Garcia (contact her at jona1123 via yahoo.com), Raffy Garcia (contact him at raffygarcia via skydsl.com.ph), Mon Reyes, who’s based in LA (contact him at rsreyes via sbcglobal.net) Bing Lorenzo (contact her at mvcplorenzo via yahoo.com), and Jenny Ayroso (contact her at jtayroso via yahoo.com) – you can email them as well.
In order to avoid scamming and fraud (ie someone else pretending to be me or associated with me) please contact only myself or the people mentioned above… Let’s try to do most of the communication by private email or SMS. Please DON’T post sensitive information like bank accounts and stuff publicly.
Cho Enriquez 24 Nov 2008
Quick Update 15 Nov 2009
We still need help financially – but I’m having second thoughts about asking from friends as I know things are difficult for a lot of people these days. So instead I will leave much of this to chance… the off-chance that this will be read by a celebrity or a businessman or a politician, or simply a kind-hearted soul who wishes to help earnestly.
