RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Less than two weeks af­ter Guardian Me­dia high­light­ed her sto­ry, Chloe Ram­nar­ine has raised the US$120,000 need­ed to un­der­go life-sav­ing can­cer surgery.

The 21 year old, who has been bat­tling stage 2B Hodgkin’s Lym­phoma since Feb­ru­ary 2023, will fly to Colom­bia in mid-De­cem­ber for the pro­ce­dure that of­fers her a sec­ond chance at life.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Ram­nar­ine said since her sto­ry aired, the out­pour­ing of sup­port has been over­whelm­ing. Do­na­tions poured in from across the globe.

“I am so hap­py the pub­lic helped, es­pe­cial­ly se­nior cit­i­zens and the can­cer sur­vivors who amazed me and did their best to help, as well as small busi­ness own­ers,” Ram­nar­ine said.

Ex­press­ing grat­i­tude for the gen­eros­i­ty of strangers, she added, “My small­est do­na­tion was $5, and the largest was US$3,500. It just shows that every bit counts and there are peo­ple with good hearts who are will­ing to help, no mat­ter how small.”

The funds raised will al­low Ram­nar­ine to un­der­go an au­tol­o­gous bone mar­row trans­plant. This pro­ce­dure in­volves har­vest­ing her own bone mar­row cells, treat­ing them, and re­in­fus­ing healthy cells back in­to her body.

“I am very grate­ful that I will go to Colom­bia and fi­nal­ly get over this once and for all,” she shared.

De­spite her grat­i­tude, Ram­nar­ine ad­mit­ted to feel­ing ap­pre­hen­sive about the pro­ce­dure. “My biggest con­cern right now is fac­ing what ex­act­ly is go­ing to hap­pen in Colom­bia. They are still re­view­ing my files, so I’m pray­ing every­thing goes smooth­ly.”

Through the chal­lenges, Ram­nar­ine said she has found strength in her faith, fam­i­ly, and the wis­dom of can­cer sur­vivors who have walked a sim­i­lar path.

“I’ve been cop­ing and pray­ing a lot and talk­ing to sur­vivors who have been through so much. They gave me a lot of guid­ance,” she said.

“I’ve al­so been spend­ing time with my fam­i­ly and friends, and they have helped me so much.”

As she pre­pares for the next step in her jour­ney, Ram­nar­ine wants oth­ers fac­ing sim­i­lar bat­tles to know they are not alone.

“My mes­sage is this: if you have any trou­ble with can­cer, you need to reach out. There are cit­i­zens every­where with good hearts who are will­ing to help, even if their do­na­tions are small,” she said.

Al­though Ram­nar­ine’s fight is far from over, she said with the love and sup­port of those around her, she is ready to face what comes next.

“I am so thank­ful to every­one who helped. This jour­ney has shown me the good­ness in peo­ple. I know I can over­come any­thing,” she added.

Ram­nar­ine was di­ag­nosed with Hodgkin’s Lym­phoma, a can­cer af­fect­ing the lym­phat­ic sys­tem. As her health de­te­ri­o­rat­ed, she halt­ed her stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies as she be­gan gru­elling rounds of chemother­a­py. While the treat­ments ini­tial­ly seemed suc­cess­ful, the can­cer re­lapsed last March.

She will be fly­ing to the Fun­da­cion San­ta Fe Hos­pi­tal in Colom­bia by mid-De­cem­ber.