I am pleased to let you know that I made a contribution of 400,000 pesos (€6,000) to Rhianne's bone marrow Fund on behalf of all our kind supporters.. I shall be making another contribution in the coming weeks. Sadly, there has been a setback; Rhianne has had a relapse of her cancer and she is undergoing another series of chemotherapy. She needs to be free of the cancer in order to be able to undergo the bone marrow transplant. Here is a recent update from Mary Blanche, our Lighthouse Learning Center administrator, who keeps in touch with Rhianne's mother:

 

" The mother of Rhianne texted me yesterday to say that while doing treatment to prepare her for the transplant, they found out that her leukaemia had relapsed. Now the cancer is aggressive; the first relapse took 7 months and now it is less than 2 months since the last chemotherapy cycle. The doctor advised them to take another cycle of chemo, the sad part is it is not the same drug as before since the cancer cells are immune to the chemo they used last time. The transplant will be delayed, the doctor suggested that once Rhianne is cancer free after the chemo they will automatically proceed to do the transplant. The doctor also told them that a transplant is the only option for Rhianne’s survival."

 

Thank you for all the support; please remember Rhianne in your thoughts and prayers.

 

Richard 

 

I attach a recent photo of Rhianne and a letter she wrote to everyone to say 'thank you'. I should mention that she calls me 'Uncle Richard' as do all the children at the Lighthouse Learning Center. I should also like to mention that Rhianne's sister, Jia, aged 5 is now a pupil in our school. She is in Teacher Jay's Senior Preparatory class. When the school year started in mid-June, we were worried about her as she would often cry but she has now settled down and is participating well in class. With her parents and sister in Manila, Jia is being looked after by her aunt Cherry in Cebu.