10-year-old girl stays upbeat in battle vs leukemia

Hannah Sophia Cuaresma

MANILA, Philippines — Between her and her daughter, Fatima Cuaresma admits that 10-year-old Hannah Sophia is the stronger one.

“She has such a positive outlook on life. Whenever she sees me crying, she tells me to stop, saying she doesn’t want to be sad because her platelets will drop and that’s bad for her,” Cuaresma said.

Hannah was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in August 2017. She first developed rashes while her platelet level went down, making the doctor believe she had dengue. After a bone marrow test pointed to ALL, Hannah started chemotherapy at Philippine Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City.

In October 2020, she was on her 11th chemo cycle when tests showed she had suffered a relapse with cancer cells detected in her brain.

“That was hard for Hannah, because we had to start treatment all over again. The doctor prescribed a new chemo protocol with a higher dosage. But that’s really the case with cancer. You don’t know where it will grow. You need to get ahead of it,” Cuaresma said.

The COVID-19 pandemic, according to her, has made Hannah’s treatment harder with lockdowns resulting in delays in the scheduling of chemo sessions on top of the lack of public transportation to take them to the hospital.

Despite these challenges, her daughter has remained brave and focused on her online lessons as a Grade 5 student in a Malabon City public school.

“She has a social media account and she keeps her posts positive. When she’s in pain, she tells me or her father, but she never complains about being sick online,” Cuaresma said.

Most of the time, Hannah uses her Facebook account to help boost her mother’s online selling business.

“She poses with the products I sell — bed sheets, Life Saver watches, shirts and other goods. She asks people, even her teachers, to buy from me,” Cuaresma said. After losing his job during the pandemic, her husband, Resty, has decided to stay home to help her with her small business in addition to soliciting donations for Hannah’s treatment. The couple has another daughter.

Aside from chemotherapy, which costs P224,487.50 per cycle, Hannah will soon undergo irradiation at the University of Santo Tomas Hospital. The initial 10 sessions, based on an estimate given by the hospital, will cost around P41,300 with Philippine Health Insurance Corp. deductions and discounts. These expenses do not include the laboratory tests required before chemotherapy sessions and for monitoring the young girl’s condition.

Those who want to help Hannah can deposit their donations in her mother’s Landbank account (Fatima Grace U. Cuaresma, account no. 0656078456). Cuaresma can be contacted at 0933-8785199.

—STEPHANIE R. ASUNCION