The Reality in the Philippines
Not because treatment doesn't exist — but because their families can't afford $25 for a blood transfusion. We're inside Mary Johnston Hospital, funding treatment for kids whose parents have nothing.
Your dollar stretches 40x further here. $25 saves a life. You don't just donate — you decide who lives.
It begins with something small. A bruise that will not heal. A fever that keeps returning. Fatigue that steals your child's laughter. Then comes the word that rewrites your entire existence: cancer.
In that moment, the world you knew collapses. Every plan, every dream, every ordinary Tuesday becomes a distant memory. You are now a parent in crisis, thrust into a world of oncologists, chemotherapy schedules, and hospital corridors that become more familiar than home.
"You do not just fight for your child's life. You fight to stay standing while your heart breaks a thousand times a day."
The Enemy We Face
The most common childhood cancer. Cancer of the blood and bone marrow that disrupts the body's ability to fight infection and carry oxygen.
The second most common, affecting the delicate structures that control movement, thought, and every function that makes a child who they are.
Cancer of the immune system that attacks the very cells meant to protect. Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma steal childhood one lymph node at a time.
A cancer that develops from immature nerve cells, most often striking children under five. It grows silently before revealing its presence.
Osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma attack growing bones, often requiring amputation or limb-salvage surgery alongside aggressive chemotherapy.
Cancer of the eye, often detected when a parent notices a white glow in their child's pupil. Early treatment can save both life and sight.
The Battle
Powerful drugs that poison cancer cells but also ravage healthy tissue. Hair falls out. Appetite vanishes. The child you knew retreats behind a mask of exhaustion and nausea that can last for months or years.
When chemotherapy destroys blood cells faster than the body can replace them, transfusions become lifelines. Some children need them weekly, sometimes daily, each one a small miracle of donated life.
High-energy beams precisely targeted to destroy cancer cells. For children, it means lying perfectly still, often alone, while invisible rays do their work. The fear is as real as the treatment.
For some, the only hope is to destroy their entire immune system and rebuild it from donated cells. Weeks in isolation. The constant threat of rejection. A gamble with the highest stakes.
Tumor removal, port placement for chemotherapy, biopsies, and sometimes amputations. Each surgery is a trauma, a risk, and sometimes the only path forward. Recovery happens in hospital beds, not playgrounds.
Anti-nausea medications, pain management, nutritional support, physical therapy. The hidden infrastructure of survival that keeps a child alive between treatments.
The Hidden Crisis
₱500K+
Average treatment cost per child
2-3 Years
Typical treatment duration
70%
Families fall into poverty
60%
Cannot complete treatment
In the Philippines, where the minimum wage is less than $15 per day, cancer treatment costs can exceed a decade of family income. Parents sell everything. They borrow from everyone. And still, it is not enough. Children die not from cancer, but from poverty.
The Unseen Weight
"If you judge people, you have no time to love them. The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved — they are Jesus in disguise.
You learn to sleep in hospital chairs. You learn to read fear in your child's eyes and pretend you do not see it. You learn to celebrate small victories, a day without vomiting, a blood count that inches upward, while carrying the weight of uncertainty that never leaves.
Could you have caught it sooner? Did you cause this? Why your child and not someone else's? The questions that have no answers but demand to be asked.
Friends do not know what to say. Extended family offers help but cannot understand. You become a stranger in your own life, consumed by a reality others cannot imagine.
Siblings who need you but cannot have you. Their lives disrupted, their needs pushed aside, their childhood sacrificed on the altar of survival.
Partners who grieve differently, who cope differently, who sometimes cannot reach each other across the chasm that childhood cancer creates.
"You do not get to fall apart. You are the one who must be strong, even when every fiber of your being is screaming in pain. Your child needs you whole, so you pretend to be."
We Stand With You
We cover chemotherapy, medications, blood transfusions, and medical supplies so that no child is denied treatment because their family cannot pay.
Nutritious meals for children in treatment and their families. When all resources go to medicine, we ensure no one goes hungry.
Transportation assistance, housing support for families far from hospitals, and the compassionate presence that reminds them they are not alone.