Costly bone marrow transplant only option left for man battling cancer

Christopher de Veas

After being diagnosed in 2016 with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, 35-year-old Christopher de Veas will undergo a bone marrow transplant on Oct. 25.

In preparation for surgery, he was admitted on Oct. 14 to St. Luke’s Medical Center-Bonifacio Global City under its social welfare services program.

“I will stay here for 10 days to condition my body for the transplant procedure. Doctors will harvest a stem cell from my left hip and and later infuse it into my blood to rebuild my bone marrow,” De Veas said.

He, wife Monika and their two kids live in Quezon City.

B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a type of cancer that begins in the lymphatic system, the network in the body that fights diseases.

After undergoing chemotherapy, De Veas was declared cancer-free but in May 2017, he suffered a relapse, leading to another round of treatment. But it failed to suppress the cancer this time.

His doctors said the only option left was a bone marrow transplant, a procedure that costs a whopping P1.5 million.

An electrical engineer, De Veas used to supply and install solar panel devices before he got sick. His wife is a marketing staffer in a cosmetics company.

De Veas can be reached at 0915-8836179. Deposits may be made to his BPI bank account (Christopher de Veas, account #3939 0541 61).