Journey with Elena in Fighting Cancer #MVPBrave

Message from my mom MARIA ELENA PEREZ BLAQUERA

Hello Everyone!

I’m Kelly Blaquera the son of a loving mother, Maria Elena Perez Blaquera. I wanted to reach out and let you know that I’m fundraising to have a second chance at life and fight cancer for my mother. Maria Elena Perez Blaquera, fondly known as Elena/Mylene, is a loving mother, a supportive wife and a very strong and charitable woman.

She and her husband, my father, was diagnosed with cancer March 2017 in the Philippines. Since then they had numerous surgeries and received various treatment protocols that were funded by their life savings, which in turn I fully supported when the funds are all out.

My mother never backed down to the hurdles of life when getting chemotherapy, she is obedient with the suggestions of her physicians and I can see her wanting to live so bad and she’s really fighting for her life to get another chance at it. For that she is my MVP and she showed me courage that i have never seen before.

Treatment is still ongoing and my mom is pretty responsive to it that we are very hopeful in her healing. However, given the nature of my job, it is not enough to fund all the chemotherapy needed - unless I abuse my body and that’s what i did back then to make us reach this far now.

As you probably already know, this cause is very important to me. As an only child, I love my parents so much that they double not only as my mentors or elders or life givers but they also are my legit best friends. Losing one to cancer is already hard for me. But my mom is responsive to treatment and a possibility of gaining her life back and losing her’s lies between having enough funding. I’m very hopeful and i believe this could be answered by the collective love and support of people around us. That is why I’m humbly asking for everyone’s help. A donation of any amount would be truly appreciated and would help me reach to fund my mom’s treatment.

To help us simply click on the link and donate any amount. Also, if you can share our fundraiser link with your friends all over the world would mean so much to us. The more people can hear about our cause, the quicker we can reach our fundraising goal.

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To further more know about the details of my mom’s story here is a letter from Maria Elena herself:

Greetings everyone with love and hope! I am Elena, and here is my story.

Back in 2017, both my husband and I were diagnosed with cancer. He had malignant fibrosarcoma, a cancer affecting his fibrous tissues and I had breast cancer. We both underwent medical treatment, using up all our life savings, his salary and my retirement money. By the end of that same year, between the two of us, we had five hospitalizations, 3 of which involving surgical procedures. By the end of that same year, even after 2 surgeries, radiation therapy and oral chemotherapy, my husband’s cancer progressed to stage IV affecting the mediastinum and blocking his blood flow from the brain back to the heart. In August of the following year, he died. Before he died, that July, my own cancer had progressed to stage IV, multiple tumors were found on my liver. When he died, i was devastated, i was crying each and everyday, asking God to make me understand why all this things are happening to us

After my modified radical mastectomy of the left breast, I was diagnosed with ER PR negative, HER2 positive invasive ductal carcinoma, I was told it meant I have an aggressive form of breast cancer with limited treatment protocols available. I had to undergo adjuvant chemotherapy starting in February 2018. My son supported my chemotherapy since day 1. Even after the death of his father, our financial situation in disarray (he was the only one working), he opted to support 2 treatment protocols for the whole of 2018 (6 cycles of Docetaxel and cyclophosphamide every 21 days and 6 months, then weekly paclitaxel with oral Palatinib)

In February 2019, I was in so much pain, there were times when I would wake up at night and hear myself screaming because of pain. I thought I was already about to die. The cancer itself and receiving chemotherapy is painstaking but i saw my son fighting for me with the light that had been shedded by the hopeful tone of my physicians. I could not find it in my heart to say no, after all he went through, his sacrifices.

When we consulted with my Oncologist, he presented an 18 cycle treatment protocol which costs about P300,000+, roughly $6,000 per cycle, for the medicines alone, every 21 days until disease progression. I know we can’t afford it, but my son told our Onco that he is okay with it. I talked to him and he reassured me that he’ll do something about it - from that day on i saw his sacrifices: he selflessly set aside his life aspirations, he had multiple jobs, with a 96hr work week, barely sleeping and that hard work he has put into while testing the mettle of his limits just for me to have a fighting chance.

After 1 cycle, the pain immediately became bearable, we continued with the protocol. After 8 cycles, I had a PET CT SCAN. Miraculously my liver was cleared of tumours. But a mass was detected at my cerebellum. After conferring with other doctors, my son advised me that the best course to take, given that I was responding well to treatments, was to remove the tumor and be aggressive and hold on the chance to weather the storm.

I am responding pretty well to the treatments and I am hopeful. I am so much thankful to have been blessed with a loving son, for his efforts and sacrifices. However, it is crushing my heart to see him throw his own life away just to save my mine. So I am humbly asking for everyone’s love and support, as i ask for financial help. To ease the burden of our little family so that we could continue this fight against cancer and hopefully start a new lease at life and to move forward. All proceeds to this fundraiser will be used for all our expenses related to treatment protocols, diagnostics and other medical procedures in battling my cancer. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my physicians, nurses, health workers, loved ones, friends and family who has been fighting with us throughout this journey.

Thank you so much. Godspeed!

- Maria Elena Perez Blaquera

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Thank you for lending your time to listen to our story. For donations, you can use this platform or you can send it directly to these bank accounts made solely for this cause:

BPI:

Account name: MARIA ELENA P BLAQUERA

Account number: 4519053271

BDO:

Account name: GENE KELLY P BLAQUERA

Account number: 001240235435

THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT. WE WILL SURELY PAY FORWARD ALL THE HELP THAT WE WILL RECEIVE. #MVPBrave