SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

For­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Laven­tille West MP NiLe­ung Hy­po­lite is bat­tling an ag­gres­sive can­cer and is seek­ing the pub­lic’s help in rais­ing $700,000 for ur­gent treat­ment in Mi­a­mi.

On June 4, Hy­po­lite’s wife Nisa-Marie cre­at­ed a Help NiLe­ung Beat Can­cer page on so­cial me­dia to raise funds for her hus­band who was re­cent­ly di­ag­nosed with acute adult T-cell leukaemia/ lym­phoma (ATL).

On the page, Hy­po­lite stat­ed his doc­tors ad­vised “that this is a very rare and ag­gres­sive type of can­cer which, un­for­tu­nate­ly, can­not be treat­ed in the Caribbean.”

The doc­tors ad­vised Hy­po­lite to go to Mi­a­mi for ur­gent med­ical at­ten­tion.

The cost of this trip, in­clud­ing med­ical treat­ment, is ex­pect­ed to cost $700,000 which Nile­ung is ask­ing the pub­lic to help him raise soon­est.

“My course of treat­ment is that of a Bone Mar­row Trans­plant (BMT) which is the on­ly per­ma­nent cure to save one’s life. This is a sud­den di­ag­no­sis and fi­nance can be a huge chal­lenge,” he post­ed on the page.

“I re­al­ly need your sup­port in beat­ing this dread­ed dis­ease. I am ask­ing kind­ly, please make this pos­si­ble by mak­ing a do­na­tion,” he plead­ed with the pub­lic.

Plas­tered on the page were two pho­tographs of Hy­po­lite. The first showed the for­mer MP with a full head of hair be­fore be­ing di­ag­nosed. A re­cent pho­to­graph showed a smil­ing Hy­po­lite with no hair.

As of yes­ter­day, the fund had $16,139 do­nat­ed by 14 peo­ple, in­clud­ing Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne who gave $6,750.

Fam­i­ly, friends and well-wish­ers have al­so de­posit­ed mon­ey in­to Hy­po­lite’s bank ac­count.

In 2007, Hy­po­lite was elect­ed as Laven­tille West MP un­der the ad­min­is­tra­tion of then-prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning.

He was re-elect­ed on May 24, 2010.

How­ev­er, Hy­po­lite was re­placed by Fitzger­ald Hinds who won the seat in 2015 un­der Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s regime.

Hy­po­lite, 54, served as a tem­po­rary Sen­a­tor un­der the PNM.

Mar­ried in 1995, Hy­po­lite is a fa­ther of one.

At the end of this month, Hy­po­lite has an ap­point­ment at a med­ical in­sti­tu­tion in Mi­a­mi.

Last month, he trav­elled to Mi­a­mi to un­der­go tests.

In a brief tele­phone in­ter­view, Hy­po­lite’s wife Nisa Marie said her hus­band was di­ag­nosed with can­cer about three weeks ago. She said he has to un­der­go a se­ries of tests and treat­ments be­fore doc­tors can do the bone mar­row trans­plant.

“Re­mem­ber this type of can­cer is ex­treme­ly ag­gres­sive.”

Nisa-Marie said that time is of the essence. Hy­po­lite has been un­der­go­ing chemother­a­py in Trinidad.

Asked how Hy­po­lite has been cop­ing, Nisa-Marie said her hus­band has been op­ti­mistic.

“He is a very op­ti­mistic per­son.....I think we all be­lieve that once he gets the re­quired treat­ment every­thing will be fine. We know the fight­er that he is.”

She ad­mit­ted that peo­ple with­in the PNM have reached out to help.

“We know that they are do­ing work on their end to as­sist.”

In 2016, Hy­po­lite in a Sun­day Guardian ar­ti­cle ad­mit­ted that it was an up­hill bat­tle since com­ing out of pol­i­tics.

Hy­po­lite, who was side­lined by the PNM screen­ing com­mit­tee in March of 2015, said he was “catch­ing his roy­al” af­ter not be­ing con­sid­ered for a po­si­tion un­der the PNM.

He said the small busi­ness his wife owned “can­not sup­port me” and ad­mit­ted that he had been dip­ping in­to his sav­ings to make ends meet.

Un­able to land a job, Hy­po­lite said he had seen some for­mer MPs come right down to noth­ing.

Any­one will­ing to help Hy­po­lite can de­posit mon­ey in­to his JMMB Tu­na­puna branch ac­count # 007 700 015 767 or the "fund­met­nt help nile­ung beat can­cer" link.