Help for my father’s Melanoma treatment (immunotherapy)

***Update:

Thank you everyone for extending your help to my father. No more pain and suffering for him. October 10, 1953 - June 22, 2021

Hello everyone! I am a daughter of a 67 yo Filipino male patient who is currently in the hospital in the Philippines and has been diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma. I am creating this fundraiser in order for us to continue supporting my father's cancer treatment.

It all started when a nevus (mole) on his right popliteal (back of knee) became bigger and formed a mass. Due to the pandemic lockdown in 2020, my father was not able to have it checked right away. In January 2021, he finally had it checked by a dermatologist, however, he was referred to a surgeon to have it removed. An operation was done to remove the egg-sized tumor and sent to laboratory for biopsy. The biopsy result revealed that it is a malignant melanoma, a type of skin cancer. His oncologist advised him to undergo another operation on his right inguinal area (groin) to remove the small masses that have started to grow and to remove extra skin on the site of his first operation. The expenses were partially covered by my brother’s health insurance from his job and the rest was settled by our family with the help of our relatives.

After he had recovered from 2 operations, my father started his radiation therapy as advised by his oncologists. He started to feel nauseous everyday while doing the radiation therapy. We referred all the symptoms to his doctor and he was given oral medications to ease his discomfort. His nausea worsen as the days passed by and started throwing up at least once a day. Until 2 days prior his confinement he vomited for 2 days without any food intake. Scared of he might get too dehydrated, we decided to rush him to the emergency room. Blood, urine test and chest xray were done. A chest ultrasound was requested to have a clear view of his lungs and doctors found fluid accumulated (pleural effusion) in his right lung due to cancer metastasis. On his CT scan also found that the cancer has spread to his liver and some black patches found in his stomach which was suspected to be a gastric melanoma. Doctors needed to insert chest tube into his right lung to drain the fluids accumulated. 2 weeks after, another chest tube was needed to drain his left lung.

My father’s doctors believe that the new treatment for cancer patients called immunotherapy could be the best management for his case. Pembrolizumab is the medicine used for immunotherapy that works with the body’s immune system to fight cancer. This will initially be infused to a patient followed by 2 more sessions with a 3-week interval each. After completing 3 sessions a CT scan is needed to check how the body reacts to the treatment and to figure out if he still needs to continue with the therapy.

This is a fundraiser to help us support my father’s medical expenses most especially for his medicine Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) that costs Php 158,000 EACH immunotherapy session.

Breakdown of my father’s medical needs:

Php 35,000 - running hospital room charges
Php 110,000 - 2 chest tube insertion (right&left)
Php 7000 - 1 chest ultrasound
Php 900 - 3 chest xrays
Php 1200 - biopsy
Php 316,000 - Pembrolizumab 2 sessions

For monetary donation in Philippines:

BDO acct: 004494502017 Acct name: Danelli Barrera Francisco

Gcash: 09150556316 Acct Name: Donabel Barrera

My father is a very thoughtful and generous person. He always wanted to give to those who are in need selflessly. We didn’t have much in life but we are blessed to have family and relatives who endlessly support us.

In behalf of our family, we are knocking on your kind hearts for any amount that you can spare us to support my father’s medical needs. Most importantly, we’d like to request also to include him in your prayers.

Thank you everyone for taking your time to read. May God bless you all.