News
Yvonne Webb

EVEN as she left for India on Sunday morning for life-saving surgical procedure, police constable Zelia Christiana Castello, 27, who’s battling cancer, made a final minute enchantment for assist.
“Please TT, my life is in your hands. Without the funds to complete the surgery, I could die.”
Castello left TT on Sunday morning, sure for India, with a blended sense of optimism and trepidation.
Optimism that the bone marrow transplant surgical procedure she should bear shall be profitable, however apprehension that the cash wanted to save her life is not going to be enough or get to her on time.
Woefully wanting the $1.4 million to offset the price of her therapy, Castello stated the Apollo Hospital in India has bent backwards to take her in as a result of her scenario is dire.
The cash collected by way of fundraisers, a First Citizens checking account: 2283611, plus US$3,000 by way of a GoFundMe account, is just sufficient to begin the method.
The illness has left the mom of 1 unable to work as a Municipal Police officer on the Siparia Regional Corporation the place she was final assigned. After she acquired ailing, she was instructed her insurance coverage doesn’t cowl cancer.
“I have been under some financial strain because cancer medication is expensive.”
First recognized in January 2021 with cancer of the lymphatic system, part of the physique’s germ-fighting immune system, Castello was being handled on the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH).
However, her cancer progressed to stage 4, requiring pressing bone marrow transplant, which isn’t out there in TT.
“Chemo places the cancer to sleep. It stays within the physique for one month. As quickly because the chemo wears off, the cancer wakes again up. My final therapy was eight weeks in the past and docs stated there may be nothing extra they will do for me right here.
“All the signs have returned: physique pains, muscle spasms. I can’t even maintain my spoon to eat. My fingers shake like a leaf.
“My lymph nodes are swollen, my neck, everywhere is starting to swell up. I can’t hold on much longer, I really need to leave for treatment,” she stated. She revealed having to cancel preparations to depart in early September, owing to the dearth of funds.
“Without the treatment, “there is every indication that I could die.”
Her Point Fortin household wakened early on Sunday to pray with her and ship her off with optimism, that in some way she is going to obtain the monetary assist for the surgical procedure.
The first process she is going to want when she will get to India, she stated, is high-dose salvage chemotherapy, which shall be performed privately.
A US$15,000 down cost had to be made for this aggressive type of chemotherapy earlier than the transplant might be performed. This includes eradicating the affected person’s bone marrow, clearing out the cancer cells and re-implanting it.