A mom pleads for help for son in Dubai with leukemia

MANILA, Philippines – Memelyn Teodosio Rose, 60, is a perfect match for her son’s desperately needed bone marrow transplant. A report in Gulf News said her son, Larry Teodosio Castro, 35, a former supermarket staffer in Dubai, is battling acute myeloid leukemia (AML) at a Dubai hospital.

Larry said in his fundraising blog, “My condition started with a simple fever in 2011, I started losing weight.” He added: “My gums started to bleed. I had on-and-off fever, I was rushed to Rashid Hospital in Dubai.” That was when he found out he had AML. It is a common but deadly form of blood cancer, if left untreated. 

Patients with AML experience a rapid growth of abnormal white blood cells that accumulate in the bone marrow and interfere in the production of normal blood cells. 

After 3 years of searching, Castro found a match in his mother, but they face another problem: they can’t afford the procedure.

Castro told Gulf News, “It pains me to see my mother in such despair. She cries all the time. I pray that we can go through the transplant as early as possible. A hospital in New Delhi is ready to do the procedure but we don’t have the money for it.”

The estimated cost of the procedure is $40,000 (P1.7 million).

Rose, who is in the Philippines, is appealing for help. “I desperately want to save my baby,” she said. – Rappler.com 

To help Larry, visit his YouCaring fundraising site here.