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Ana Costa and Ricardo Vilaça hope that treatments abroad will cure cancer.
Ana Costa and Ricardo Vilaça, from Braga, want their son to make his dream of being a soccer player and martial arts apprentice come true. But first they need Tomás, seven years old, to cure himself of a neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer, which does not yield to therapies at the Portuguese Oncology Institute (IPO) in Porto, where they follow him. Hope now is in the treatments performed in Spain and the United States of America, which can cost up to 400 thousand euros.
“For Tomás’s dreams” is the name of the campaign that his parents launched on Facebook last Friday, and that already has thousands of shares and hundreds of strong comments. Ana Costa explains that the treatments in question are clinical trials, “which are not reimbursed”, but have had results in other children. “The father of a child [seguido no IPO] spent about 400 thousand euros. But the cancer was in remission for three years. It relapsed in May. They have at least three more years to live for their child. I have faith that when I turn three, I get it all my life. Letting go is not enough. I want to feel that we did everything, ”says the mother, explaining that the planned clinical trials combine chemotherapy with immunotherapy and vaccination.
“They will be treatments oriented according to the clinical team that accompanies Tomás,” says Ana Costa, who is also the mother of a girl, Constança, who was born about a year ago, at the same time that the disease was discovered. “12 days after my sister was born, I knew that Tomás had cancer. I was stunned, ”he recalls, going through a year of many struggles. “Tomás went through eight cycles of chemotherapy, a highly invasive surgery, an autotransplant, several cycles of radiation therapy, and three cycles of invasive immunotherapy. And yet he always recovered and smiled ”, he describes.
Currently, the boy will start another phase of chemotherapy at the OPI. “Feeling the support of the people is fabulous. Not only money matters, ”says Ana Costa about the wave of solidarity that has been generated through social networks.
The IBAN number to help is the following: PT50000700000051080394123.
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