Mom of 4-year-old boy with leukemia seeks help from readers

King JV de Belen

MANILA, Philippines—King JV de Belen has acute lymphocytic leukemia but he has stopped undergoing chemotherapy.

The four-year-old son of Jomarie Antimano was first forced to stop his chemotherapy sessions because of uncontrollable bleeding. This is on top of the family’s lack of money for his treatment.

Lately, however, his system has stopped responding to treatment because the cancer cells have become more aggressive. As a result, doctors at Philippine Children’s Medical Center have adopted a palliative treatment protocol for him.

Palliation is not a treatment for cancer itself but a way to improve the patient’s quality of life.

“It is more of blood transfusion and oral intake of eight kinds of medicines. We were also told to make him happy by giving him all the love that we could provide,” Jomarie said.

She asked Inquirer readers for help as her husband, Jayson de Belen, has lost his job as a hardware delivery man due to his many absences from attending to the needs of his son.

The couple spend P45,000 a month for blood transfusion and their son’s medicine alone.

Jomarie Antimano can be reached at 0905-5878405. Please deposit donations in her RCBC account (#6019710603798893).