ASUNCION
ALTHOUGH she has been unable to go to school since her diagnosis with acute lymphoblastic leukemia five years ago, 8-year-old Mel Rio Asuncion is eager to become a student.
“She always asks her cousins what they do in school, what their teachers teach them,” 44-year-old Haydee Asuncion told the Inquirer about her youngest child in a brood of five.
Haydee and her daughter are temporarily staying with her niece in Fairview, Quezon City, to make it easier for them to go to the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, where Mel Rio has been undergoing chemotherapy since February.
She is scheduled for another round this week—the fourth in a 12-cycle treatment program.
The rest of the Asuncion family are in the City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija where Mario, the father, works as a laborer in a construction site while attending to the needs of their other children.
“My daughter told me about her wish of having a private tutor, or to enroll in a special class, away from classmates who may bully her for being the eldest in the class but unable to read or write at her age,” Haydee said.
She asked readers of the Inquirer for help because her husband has no permanent source of income while each cycle of chemotherapy costs P30,000.
Haydee can be reached at 0946-5276629. Donations can be deposited in the Landbank account of her daughter, Janine Asuncion, (#2966112339).