Happy weekend to you and your family. I hope this open letter meets you in high spirits, good health and peace of mind. I also state my gratitude for how you have been a willing helper to my needs in recent months. God will surely bless you more.
I write again regarding my 12-year-old son, David Fasetire, whose dream of becoming a top-class footballer is still endangered, as he could not return to LUTH on September 1st for his monthly assessment of a very painful tumour that emerged in his neck last year.
He was meant to be at LUTH’s oncology centre on Tuesday, in continuation of his monthly treatment of nasalpharynx cancer (stage one), with chemotherapy lasting for a week. Sadly, my wife and I could not take him there, because we could not raise funds for the procedure.
As it were, my wife and I had to take loans from various sources to meet up with last month’s bill, because the donations we got were not enough.
He continued receiving blood transfusion, injections, drugs and chemotherapy – which cost a total of N415,000 and the same amount would be required for this month and October to finalise the process.
We need to complete the full treatment to avoid a relapse of the tumour. We thank God that the swelling has gone down, but he has to return there this month and October for monthly assessment. The doctors projected a total bill of N1.2m for the three months (N400,000 per month) to complete the treatment.
Back to the beginning – after trying to ignore the complaint when it began in the middle of last year, we eventually appealed for support and many people donated up to N800,000 in two days, which helped us begin the process at Igando General Hospital, but the doctors soon went on strike.
In February this year, we resumed the process at two private hospitals and went to LASUTECH in March (totalling almost N1.3m, which a lot of donations also helped us to cover).
However, it was in June that the real treatment started at LUTH, and he was eventually admitted in July (all of which cost over N400,000).
We needed the aame amount in August, but the donations we got this time were barely above N100,000 – which might be so because donors would reckon that they have helped us a lot already and they also have other issues to face.
For August, the total amount of donations we got was N110,000 and we then balanced up with loans from three sources totalling N305,000 to settle the bill of N415,000 before he was discharged.
Ahead of his next treatment this month, we needed to pay a debt of N305,000 and prepare for LUTH’s monthly bill of approximately N400,000 after another week’s assessment, then another N400,000 in October.
We got some donations last week and paid up N155,000 of the debts. This means I need at least N1m to complete my son’s treatment. How am I going to do this without donations from well-meaning Nigerians?
So, once again, I humbly appeal for assistance from colleagues, friends, politicians, NGOs, corporate bodies, administrators, celebrities and politicians. God will bless you more as you assist my son and I. Thank you.
— fcmb 1047151176 Sam O’Femi Fasetire
