Amee is recovering after a donation of an expensive crucial medicine

Amee Alejandra Alas Ponce

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Even Amee’s intensely sunny personality couldn’t prevent the events of 2007. While playing at school Amee fell and hit her head. This was followed by vomiting. When she got home she was disoriented and off balance. Then the seizures began. A CT scan wasn’t definitive and an MRI was ordered, which detected a grade 1 Astrocytoma on the right side lobe. A biopsy was done. The tumor was inoperable. The best plan for Amee’s future is to reduce the size of the tumor through chemotherapy and then operate. Although she has received some initial treatments with Carboplatin and Vincristine the drug of choice is Temodar. Krebsallianz has donated this effective new drug in time for Amee to start treatment.

As the first born, Amee’s Mom says Amee is “her whole world” and talks about her feelings of helplessness. She is separated from her husband and has had to borrow heavily from her family and other sources to pay for Amee’s medical costs. The business she had created of selling clothing from her home has evaporated. Her time, energy and resources must be directed to her child. And without the donations of medications from the foundation she could never have afforded the insurmountable expense of these specialised drugs. Amee is back in school for now and loves studying English. Even though she is having a hard time. The chemotherapy leaves her ill with side effects and the Friday treatments further interfere with her school work. The previous chemotherapy treatments have so far stopped the diffusion of Amee’s tumor. And with the new addition of the Temodar the doctors are hopeful of a reduction in size significant enough to indicate surgical removal of her tumor.