Pinay in UAE seeks $40k for son battling leukemia

A Filipina is seeking a financial assistance of $40,000 to have a stem cell transplant for her son who is confined in a hospital in the United Arab Emirates due to acute myeloid leukemia.

Memelyn Teodosio Rose, 60, said her son Larry Castro, 35, needs an urgent stem cell transplant but has no money for it, Gulf News reported.

“I desperately want to save my baby. Please help me,” she appealed from the Philippines.

She said that while she was identified as a perfect match for her son, they could not afford the procedure.

Mrs. Rose said Larry, her only child from her first marriage, suffered a second relapse in 2011 and has been confined to a Dubai hospital since.

For his part, Castro said it pains him to see his mother in despair.

"She cries all the time. I pray that we can go through the transplant as early as possible. A hospital in New Delhi is ready to do the procedure but we do not have the money for it,” he said.

Castro said he was healthy until 2011 when his gums started bleeding and he developed fever.

He spent five months in a hospital in the first year and five more after his first relapse in 2013.

"With the second relapse now, I have been in hospital since November 2014. I have had enough of this and want to lead a normal life and put a smile back on my mother’s face,” he said.

 $40k

The Gulf News report cited a copy of a medical report from the Delhi hospital saying Castro needed an “urgent Haplo identical donor transplantation.”

Such a procedure may cost $40,000 – not even counting Castro's medical bills in the UAE.

“There is no way we can raise such a huge amount. In fact, I have no idea how I will even clear my current hospital bill in Dubai which has already crossed Dh110,000,” Castro said.

Dubai social worker Pam Gouri said Castro is only 35 "and has a whole life ahead of him." — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News

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