4 months ago, Magua was in pretty bad shape as his body was losing the battle against leukemia. Thankfully, he now is winning. He has a form of leukemia called Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia which is the best kind for anyone here in PNG to have, because we actually have a medicine that works. Since his diagnosis, he has been taking a medicine called Glivec, an expensive medicine that specifically targets the mutation causing cancer, and put the cancer in a remission. Up until Glivec, all the pts we have treated for cancer have passed away, most rather quickly. Glivec gives them and their family hope of more time together through remission of their cancer. We don't have the thousands of dollars that would be needed to purchase Glivec, but thankfully the company who makes it is willing to give it away for free to patients in developing countries who qualify for the medicine. Magua has qualified.
Magua and his family live 3 hours from our hospital, but they come every month to get a checkup and to get a resupply of medicines. Magua's mom heard about our hospital and the medicine we have from another CML pt's daughter, who heard about his condition and then brought him to us. She had seen the change her mom was experiencing and wanted the same for Magua as well. Magua and his mom were overjoyed and were praising God, when I shared that his blood counts are all normal now. Magua, 12 yo, is not currently in school because he had been very sick prior to starting Glivec. He is hoping to return to school next year (Feb), but he has had some hearing difficulty and we are praying that it resolves so he can return to school.
Pray for Magua and for others in our GIPAP program who are finding their lives restored through Glivec.
