8-year-old cancer patient needs help
We expect serious illness to strike as we get older, but when a disease like cancer invades the body of a child, it is an unexpected tragedy that can turn the life of an entire family upside down. Tonight Jacqueline Woods recounts the story of one such group of Belizeans that is doing their best to stay upright.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Today Myra Carlita Yaxcal is celebrating her eight birthday. But this beautiful little girl is unable to do the normal fun things any child her age would enjoy. Up until last September, Myra was attending classes at Queen Street Baptist Primary School and was having a good time reading her books and playing with friends. But one month later Myra started to complain about pains in her head and after getting up one morning she could not walk.
Isabella Ack, Mother
“Just little pain, but one night she had pain whole night she had pain. And then inna the morning she can’t walk again, she dropped sick. She can’t walk, she can’t turn again, she tried to walk, she just fling on the floor.”
Isabella Ack says her daughter had never been seriously ill and she quickly rushed Myra to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. A CAT Scan was performed, which revealed that a malignant tumour, the size of a grapefruit, had grown at the base of Myra’s brain. Ack says when the doctor told her the news, she felt lost, confused and frightened over the possibility that her only daughter could die.
Isabella Ack
“I feel bad because I didn’t like it, because sickness is very hard. I feel bad, I cry, sometimes I walk on the street without my sense.”
Isabella is having a difficult time coping with the situation. One month after Myra was diagnosed, she went to Guatemala. There she was given medication to ease the pain. Following that treatment, a tube was inserted into the little girl’s brain to relieve fluid that had built up in the cavity. Then in September, Myra underwent a delicate radiation procedure to burn off the tumour. That treatment lasted for six weeks, but not all of the cancerous tissue was gone. In January, she started taking chemotherapy every week, which resulted in the loss of her long black hair. The chemo, which should run for seven months, also makes Myra feel very bad.
Myra Carlita Yaxcal, Cancer Patient
“Cause it mek I get sick and I ketch vomiting…cause I hate staying in the hospital.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Do you know what is wrong with you?”
Myra Carlita Yaxcal
“Yes.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Tell me.”
Myra Carlita Yaxcal
“I have a brain tumour. I have brain tumour by my brain.”
Jacqueline Woods
“So you understand why you need to get the treatment so you can get better?”
Myra Carlita Yaxcal
“Yes.”
Jacqueline Woods
“I understand that you had to stop attending school because you always felt sick. Do you miss school?”
Myra Carlita Yaxcal
“Yes.
Jacqueline Woods
“What do you miss about school?”
Myra Carlita Yaxcal
“My friends and my teachers.”
This weekend Myra is expected to go back to Guatemala. The frequent trips and treatments have been financially hard on the family. Isabella, who is a single mother, can no longer work on a regular schedule because of her daughter’s condition. Myra’s treatment cost four hundred Belize dollars per session and that does not include the medication or travel expenses.
Isabella Ack
“I noh really have family, only friends. I have friends, my friends from Radisson they see how hard I go through. Before I used to work up there, going for three years now, but since August I noh work again up to now.”
“Sometimes when I ready to go to Guatemala sometimes I didn’t have any money, I have to go borrow a lee money to go to Guatemala. That why I ask the public, if some of them want to help me.”
Isabella says the doctors have told her that following the chemo treatment they cannot assure her that Myra will remain cancer free, but at least she is looking forward to the day that her daughter will have the chance to go back to school and do all the things that an eight year old should. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
If you would like to help Isabella Ack, please contact Lucy Williams at telephone number 606-9629 or you can deposit your donation directly into Belize Bank account number 2079868.
