Three years ago, Senate legislative officer Mots Venturina was scrolling through her Instagram feed, looking for inspiration for her upcoming birthday celebration. She came across a post by her friend who conducted an outreach program at the state-run National Children’s Hospital in Quezon City. She decided that instead of the usual party, she and her friends would celebrate her birthday by staging an art auction to raise funds for child cancer patients.

 

They were able to raise a total of P75,000 for 20 beneficiaries. However, the amount was not sufficient—the minimum cost for a single round of chemotherapy is at least P50,000.

 

“It was supposed to be a one-off thing. But when we saw the kind of impact the event had, we realized that we will have to make a continuous and sustained effort if we want to help more kids,” Venturina recalled.

 

That art auction event called Pay Ink Forward eventually became one of the main fundraising activities of Cancervants PH, an advocacy organization which provides direct assistance to child cancer patients and campaigns for better and greater funding for healthcare services in the Philippines.

 

The organization partners with companies, foundations, and individuals to raise funds for paying patients’ laboratory fees, hospital bills, and cancer medications. Since its first Pay Ink Forward event in December 2015, it has successfully staged multiple fundraisers that have individually earned more than P200,000.

 

Cancervants PH also holds events to further spread awareness about pediatric cancer, facilitates psychosocial activities for the patients and their families, as well as assist people and institutions who would like to conduct outreach activities with them.

 

Cancervants PH members and volunteers are mostly students and young professionals from across the country, with the Manila-based organization having chapters in Batangas, Cebu, and Davao. They currently support at least 100 long-term beneficiaries all over the Philippines.

 

Venturina handles the membership and volunteer recruitment for Cancervants PH alongside co-founder Mac Chavez, who heads the organization’s marketing arm.

 

For Chavez, a business degree holder and currently a multimedia arts student, being involved in Cancervants PH is a commitment stemming from personal loss. Her brother died in 2013 at a young age due to cardiac arrest. She herself was also diagnosed with a heart condition the year before.

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“Initially, I wanted to help people living with heart conditions. But I came to realize that it doesn’t matter who you help, what’s important is you make things easier for people who suffer physically and emotionally during their time in hospital care,” Chavez said.

 

When Venturina approached her in 2015 with the idea of founding a child cancer advocacy group, she immediately grabbed the opportunity.

 

“I have a sense that somehow, the kids we’re helping are all like my brother. What I was not able to do for him, we want to be able to do for them,” she shared.

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And help in any form is something these children certainly need. An estimated 3,500 Filipino children are diagnosed with cancer every year, with the disease remaining to be one of the top causes of death for young Filipinos.

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Data from Philippine Children’s Medical Center stated that despite significant improvements in the leukemia survival rates among patients below the age of 14—jumping from around 20% in 2006 to 78% in 2016—two out of 10 children with leukemia die within a few years after being diagnosed.

 

Meanwhile, data is scarce on the survival prospects of the other 50% of childhood cancer patients in the country, who suffer from conditions affecting the eyes, brain, and the nervous and immune systems, among others.

 

With such a challenging situation for child cancer patients in the Philippines, passion is an indispensable requirement in Cancervants PH.

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Venturina admitted that their advocacy is an emotionally draining one.

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“Sometimes, we can’t help but break down because we get so close to these kids and yet we constantly have this thought in the background that soon, this child or that patient won’t be there anymore,” she said.

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Whenever she catches herself thinking about the gravity of her chosen advocacy, Venturina chooses to brush them off and reminds herself of why she and Chavez started Cancervants PH in the first place.

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“If we only limit ourselves to advocacies that are easy or Instagram-pretty, we won’t be able to do much for people in need. That which is difficult is that which is worthwhile, and when we get to see these kids living another day because of the work that we do for them, then we feel that we have done our mission,” she shared, adding that they are also encouraged by the dedication they see in Cancervants members and volunteers.

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Despite the difficulties, Chavez said she draws strength from the kids themselves, recalling a recent Cancervants activity where they brought some of their beneficiaries to an indoor roleplaying park in Taguig. She said seeing them living out their dreams of becoming doctors, firefighters, and engineers was just an example of how much they love life and need the support of people who would not give up on them.

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“Service is really a conscious effort, it’s a daily choice to either help these kids gain access to the medical treatment they need or leave them to their fate. If we made our decisions solely from a point of convenience, this organization would have died long ago,” she said.

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Chavez added that Cancervants PH offers the kids and their families not only fleeting financial assistance—they also offer them a loving support group as they are going through the most challenging period of their lives.

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“One must live outside of oneself. I believe we could only be of value to others if we persist on a mindset of being constantly aware of the people around us—seeing their needs and doing what we can to help ease those needs.”