10-year-old sick boy needs help

Ace Landicho

Ten-year-old John Ace Landicho is a Grade 2 student whose condition prevents him from engaging in what children enjoy the most: play.

He was just three years old when he was diagnosed in 2006 with Beta thalassemia, a blood disorder that results in below average levels of hemoglobin, the iron-containing protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to cells.

The condition causes a lack of oxygen in many parts of the body, leading to anemia, which can result in weakness, fatigue and other complications.

“His doctors and teachers have advised him against joining games in school because when he gets tired, he turns black,” said Landicho’s mother, Mary Jane, who is raising him single-handedly.

She is asking for help from Inquirer readers because her son needs to undergo an operation to have his “overgrown” spleen removed. According to doctors, the spleen is sucking all of the red blood cells in his body.

The Landichos, however, will need P65,000 for the operation to be done at Philippine Children’s Medical Center. Right now, mother and son depend on her father, who owns a small sari-sari (retail) store, for their basic needs.

Donors can reach Mary Jane at 0919-6631694 or deposit their donations into her BPI account (number 5666-2813-24).