Three-year-old Caitlin Soleil Lucas from the Philippines, known to many as Courageous Caitie, has been diagnosed with a rare, mysterious form of cancer of the blood called ‘juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia.’
Now admitted in a Singapore hospital, her hospital bills are on the rise amounting to almost US$300,000. They flew from Manila to Singapore in the hopes of getting more advanced medical attention.
Her family now needs all our help to support Caitie’s road to healing.
Check out her video message thanking all those who have been helping her:
(Photos and videos from gofundme.com)
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#DANCEFORCATIE. The Filipino Dance Club (FDC) in Singapore, with the help of the Pinoy community, organized a free dance class at Citylink on March 18, 2016 to raise donations for Catie and her family.
Close to 30 of us came down to participate, and although I didn’t expect that we’ll hit a significant amount of money, the mere support the team has given was already quite remarkable.
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They say that ‘alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.’ I knew I can only give as much and do as much.
What then if I can pool and raise more money from friends who are also willing to help? I believe in the pure generosity of my friends and I’m sure most of them won’t mind.
And so I knocked at their doors (well, most only their Facebook inboxes) and asked if they were willing to help.
I received a resounding YES from plenty of them. True enough, I was blessed with friends with big hearts!
Those with two left feet, or those who didn’t have time on a Friday night, willingly extended their monetary help instead as I promised to dance in behalf of them.
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Choreographer: Ralph Pacayra and Koree Edison // Song: Hold my Hand by Jess Glyne.
Here are some outtakes from FDC class:
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BLAST FROM THE PAST: A side story. I remember growing up, I was very much involved in community and church work, which also required soliciting pledges from people every now and then. I’ve spent the summers of 1999 to 2007 walking around the little slum neighborhoods in my town (Pasig CIty) encouraging kids to attend our ‘youth camps’ and to invite teenagers like us to help with the ‘older sibling’ work needed for the rest of the camp. Every year, we end up gathering a hundred children of different ages, and the memories I have with them — singing, dancing, performing, praying, learning, laughing, cleaning floors, eating shared homemade food on banana leaves — are worth keeping forever.
Our organization has limited funds as most of us were still students then.
How do you then feed a hundred children who come to your daily afternoon sessions when you basically have no funds at all? By feeding the children and the youth volunteers, then you reward them with decent meals, which sometimes excite them as they rarely enjoy them at their own homes.
This was probably my own renaissance period – the years where I learned how to start knocking at people’s homes while asking for donations for the benefit of other people, whether in cash or in kind. I get as little as 20 pesos to 500 pesos. They may seem small amounts at first, but once you get plenty of help from relatives, friends and strangers, andyou begin pulling all the funds together, you end up collecting a very good sum (close to 15,000 to 30,000 pesos). This was sufficient enough to feed everyone (and to also shop a little bit for school supplies which we in turn give to the children) all the way till the camp’s graduation day.
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BACK TO THE DANCE FLOOR. On Friday, I was able to personally raise SG$300 from friends in Singapore and even in Manila (!).
While doing my collections, I was asked by another close friend why do I keep sharing to people all the names of those who have donated — he asked: shouldn’t I keep it confidential?
I WAS PROUD OF THEM and their generosity. This is my own little way of giving them a pat on the back. I SHOULD BE SHOUTING ABOUT IT INSTEAD.
So here’s my big shoutout to my friends who have extended their help to Courageous Catie: Pierre & Sarah, Kate, KD, Tim & Yuyeth, Jerick, Chucky, Shan, Bic, Krystel & MC, Paul and Jaypee.
BIG HUG! Thanks for being a blessing to others, especially kids who are in need.
I also promised that I’ll be wearing the names (printed on badges) of those who helped me in my donation drive during the dance class:
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PRAYERS FOR CATIE. We do hope that Catie’s condition will get better very soon and that her strong spirit will conquer her frail body despite the medications being thrown at her.
Everything’s gonna be okay, dear Catie. Keep fighting!
For those of you wish to get updates about her medical condition, you may visit her mom’s blog page (link) or via gofundme (link).
Thanks to FDC Singapore as well for organizing this event.
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I had a dream the other night
About how we only get one life
Woke me up right after two
Stayed awake and stared at you
So I wouldn’t lose my mind.