Teen with blood disorder wants to be a pilot

MANAYAN

WHEN John Patrick Manayan was diagnosed with beta thalassemia in 2007, he told his mother he wanted to become an altar boy.

Beta thalassemia is a blood disorder which reduces the production of hemoglobin, the iron-containing protein in red blood cells that carry oxygen to cells throughout the body.

“One day, he came to me and said: ‘Mama, I want to serve the Lord,’” Leila Manayan told the Inquirer, referring to her son’s newfound devotion to God, by serving as an altar boy in Sto. Rosario Parish Church in Rosario, Cavite province, where they live.

Manayan said she herself was wishing for a miracle: The complete healing of her 17-year-old son who stopped attending school seven years ago due to his condition.

“He stopped when he was in Grade 4. He was only nine years old at the time. He misses school so much that he keeps telling me that he wants to take an examination to be admitted to Grade 6. He dreams of being a pilot,” she said.

Based on the treatment recommended by the Cancer and Hematology Center of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, John Patrick must regularly undergo blood transfusions twice a month. For this and his regular medication, he needs P61,747 monthly.

“We’re asking for help from your readers because we’re neck-deep in debt,” Manayan said, adding that their main source of income came from selling tamarind candy, which she and her husband, Tomas, make themselves.

Leila Manayan can be reached at 0935-5318575. Those who want to help her son can deposit their donations in her son’s BPI account (John Patrick Manayan, account #1009-1072-62).