A New Leg For Grace

In 2010, my sister Grace (or MG) felt a slight discomfort in her left knee. We were told it was just a sprain. Strangely, the pain only got worse as time went by. Two months of worsening pain and several hospital visits later, Grace was diagnosed with osteosarcoma - an aggressive bone cancer.

In the following months, my little sister underwent 9 sessions of chemotherapy and a surgery to remove the bone tumor and reconstruct her knee with a metal implant. The treatment worked and Grace was cancer free! In the following year, Grace had two more surgeries due to implant complications - but she took all these in stride as she was determined to finish high school, and eventually continue on to college.

Despite having limited mobility and continuous medical needs, Grace worked hard to pursue her dreams. Undeterred by another surgery in 2016 due to more implant complications, Grace earned her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in 2017. Just before her graduation, Grace received a full scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in Computer Science. My entire family is so proud of her perseverance and dedication towards achieving her dreams.

However, in July 2018, as Grace was preparing for her Master's thesis, she was diagnosed with a tumor prosthesis infection. She was in and out of the hospital and was under IV antibiotics for months after, forcing her to put her thesis work on hold. Unfortunately, the treatment didn’t work - so Grace, our family, and her medical team decided on a more functional, but radical amputation treatment - rotationplasty.

Despite the unnatural look of the leg after surgery, Grace advocated for this treatment as it would entail less maintenance than an implant and will allow her to be less cautious of her leg use. This means less hospital stays, less risks of infections, and lower costs in the long term. With a rotationplasty, the only long-term maintenance needed would be for Grace’s prosthetic leg. Additionally, that would possibly enable her to enjoy activities that she couldn't do before i.e. running, biking, hiking, etc. Maybe someday, she can run faster than I can.

As part of her preparation for her rotationplasty, Grace recently underwent surgery on October 26th, to remove the tumor prosthesis which was replaced by cement spacers with antibiotics to allow the infection to normalize. Once cleared by her medical team, she will be due of her rotationplasty surgery.

My family is grateful for Grace’s progress and we’re ecstatic that she’s been 8 years cancer-free. However, her series of hospitalizations, surgeries, and tumor prosthesis has been a huge hit to our family financially. We’ve especially found it difficult recently as both our parents have reached retirement age and our dad had to retire after working overseas for years. While our parents have started a small business to plan for my dad’s retirement, we have found it difficult to cope with the piling medical costs.

We need your help to support Grace’s medical expenses for her recent surgeries, as well as her upcoming rotationplasty and recovery.

Our campaign goal is Php 1,070,000 which will be used for the following:

• Tumor prosthesis removal surgery and ongoing treatment (as of 11/5/2018): ~Php 500,000
• Rotationplasty surgery: ~Php 350,000
• Prosthetic leg: ~Php 180,000
• Physical therapy: ~Php 40,000

Thank you for reading Grace’s story and we sincerely appreciate your contribution, no matter how big or small. If you are unable to give monetary support, we would appreciate your help in sharing Grace’s story and this campaign. Thank you very much!

If convenient, use bank transfer since the website charges 4% and paypal charges an additional 3% + 16php for every transaction.

We'd greatly appreciate it if you deposit through our bank accounts:

BPI: 2779 074 636

Mary Grace Malana

BDO: 0027 002 492 71

Brenda Malana

For debit and credit card transactions: (thru paypal)

See instructions on how to send money as family and friends (to avoid paypal's donation deduction)

Paypal email: [email protected]