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Yvonne Webb
TIME is working out for 27-year-old cancer affected person Zelia Christiana Castello of Hollywood, Point Fortin.
Castello’s dream is to reside to see her seven-year-old son develop up and realise his potential.
Standing in her method of creating this a actuality is the TT$1.4 million (US$200,000) she should elevate for a life-saving operation.
“If I don’t raise that sum, the worse case scenario is death,” she instructed the Sunday Newsday on Friday.
A municipal police officer – final assigned to the Siparia Regional Corporation – Castello stated after chemotherapy three weeks in the past, native medical doctors instructed her there was nothing extra they might do to save lots of her.
“Chemo places the cancer to sleep. It stays in the physique for one month. As quickly because the chemo wears off, the cancer wakes again up. My final remedy was three weeks in the past and medical doctors stated there’s nothing else they will do for me right here.
“So, I’m in the wilderness. It’s not like I get any sort of chemo right here to assist management the illness. No extra remedy right here and no cash to go to the place remedy might be supplied.
“Bearing in mind that cancer is not something that stays in one place, but tends to grow and spread to other organs, I am facing death if I don’t get that treatment soon.”
In January 2021, Castello was identified with Hodgkin’s lymphoma – cancer of the lymphatic system which is a part of the physique’s germ-fighting immune system. She has been present process remedy at San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) ever since.
The illness has restricted her skill to work.
“I am unable to work, so I have been under some financial strain because cancer medication is expensive.”
She stated her insurance didn’t present protection for cancer.
Not all therapies can be found on the SFGH and a few must be performed privately just like the PET CT scan she did not too long ago which confirmed that the cancer had progressed from stage 3 to stage 4, requiring an pressing bone marrow transplant.
“I have reached out to facilities all over the world, and was given the opportunity to liaise with doctors at two different hospitals in India – Max Speciality and Apollo.”
Assistance was supplied by the workplace of the Indian High Commission in TT.
“However, the procedure is very expensive.”
She stated Apollo is the inexpensive of the 2 and has agreed to just accept a down fee and the excellent steadiness slightly in a while, as a result of her case is pressing.
She was scheduled to depart on September 5, however her restricted funds precipitated her to postpone her journey.
“I need to leave sometime between September 12 to 15 and I am hoping the public would really respond and assist.”
“I am basically appealing for funds to live. To live for myself and to live for my son. I want to see him grow up.”
Through many fund-raising ventures, she stated she was in a position to elevate some $40,000 which was used to buy treatment and personal remedy, plus a $15,000 down fee to bear a high-dose salvage chemotherapy, which isn’t performed on the Indian hospital however privately.
This aggressive type of chemo should happen, she defined, earlier than an autologous bone marrow transplant might be performed.
“God is on my aspect as a result of I don’t want a donor. Doctors stated my bone marrow was not compromised or broken by the chemo remedy I underwent.
“What they will do is a procedure call autologous bone marrow transplant, where they remove your bone marrow, clear out the cancer cells and reimplant it. Then I will be on my way to recovery.”
Castello lamented that Hodgkin’s lymphoma is likely one of the most curable cancers and likewise the best to treatment, “but we don’t have much avenues here in TT to treat Hodgkin’s.”
Research exhibits that advances in prognosis and remedy of Hodgkin’s lymphoma have given sufferers the prospect for a full restoration.
Anyone who needs to assist Castello might make a donation to any First Citizens department, account: 2283611. She can be contacted at 329-1688.
