8 Year Old Cancer Patient Needs Your Help
Al-Dane Moro
An eight year old Roaring Creek student, Al-Dane Moro, and his mother, Latoya Lennon, are tonight asking for help. Moro was diagnosed back in August of 2014 with stage three of Hodgkin Lymphoma, an aggressive form of cancer that originates from the white blood cells. The cause of the disease is not known, but requires intensive chemotherapy, which is currently provided by the O’Horan Hospital in neighboring Mexico. Since his diagnosis, Moro has been traveling twice every month to the Dangriga Cancer Center and across the border to Campeche, Mexico for radiation treatment. This treatment is administered every two to four weeks and will continue for the next four months. While the prognosis for the disease depends on several factors including the response to treatment, globally, it is expected that approximately eighty-five percent of those afflicted with the disease will be cured by chemotherapy and radiation. News Five spoke today with Lennon in Roaring Creek, who is asking for assistance to get her son the continued medical attention he needs.
Latoya Lennon, Mother of Al-Dane Moro
“He just came back on Sunday. He was there for three weeks to do radiation. He still has more treatment that he needs to do. Right here for the twentieth of this month, he will be going to Dangriga. He is expected back in Merida for the sixth of March. We as a family are asking the general public for assistance. It is hard finding out that your son or any child has cancer. It is hard—financial wise, physically—but by the grace of God, we will get through this. My son, he doesn’t give up. He is a fighter. Duane if you had seen him when he first fell ill, I as the mother never thought that I would have my son with me. He wasn’t eating; got so thin. I never believe he would be here with me. He spent his birthday in the hospital. He spent almost two months—a month in Belmopan and almost a month in Belize. When they did a CT scan on him and they said that it was suggestive of lymphoma and the doctor gave us a name for a doctor in Merida to take him. My aunt, my family…I can’t thank them enough for everything that they have done for us and they continue to do. And we raised funds and we took him and he did a biopsy and he has a scare. There is the scare where he did his biopsy. He was in the hospital for two weeks and it was positive for lymphoma and he’s been doing his chemo. Up to now, they still don’t have a cause for this illness only that other children with his illness show that it is an eighty-five percent…it is bad, but it is not that bad. He is getting treatment and he is showing positive so he will recover.”
Latoya Lennon
Duane Moody
“I was going to ask that next. Cure…is there a cure for his cancer? Is it chemotherapy that he will need?”
Latoya Lennon
“Well he has already gotten a set of chemo; he was in Campeche…he just came back Sunday. He was there for three weeks doing radiation and he still has some more chemo that he needs to do. We have been back and forth…every fifteen days he goes to Dangriga to the cancer center that side and after the next fifteen days, he goes back to Merida to do another set of chemo and other tests that he needs to get done for him.”
Anyone who would like to assist eight year old Al-Dane can contact the family at 629-7751 or can make deposits to Belize Bank Account number 645-228-571.
