Gryka

I became aware of Gryka in July 2016 through a Facebook post. One evening in July 2016, I was sitting in Cebu, Philippines, at my computer, chatting on Facebook with far-away friends and family members, clicking through photos and various posts. That’s how I came across the photo of a girl who was suffering from a tumor. It was on her neck and was incredibly large. The girl, who also seemed to have lost an eye, looked into the camera with a face distorted by pain and wet with tears. At first, I thought the image was fake, as I had never seen anything like it. Nevertheless, it didn’t leave my mind for days—and finally, I contacted the woman who had posted the photo online. She was an acquaintance of the mother whose daughter was in the picture. The woman established contact with Gryka’s mother. I carefully asked her if I could visit the little one. I immediately felt the need to help, but to be honest, I wanted to get an idea of the situation for myself first. The mother agreed—and so I met Gryka.

I was shocked when I saw her for the first time. I had secretly hoped that the tumor had looked larger in the photo, but in reality, it was much worse. Gryka’s mother finally told me her story. The family has five children in total and lives in a very small house on the beach outskirts of Cebu City, the capital of the island of Cebu.

Two years earlier, Gryka had already fallen ill with cancer for the first time, which affected her eye. To pay for the treatment in the hospital, her parents sold a small plot of land they owned and borrowed money from neighbors. In the hospital, the left eye was completely removed. But shortly after, Gryka’s neck swelled up—a new tumor began to grow there. Now, however, the parents had no more savings and so the tumor continued to grow incessantly.

I couldn’t believe that Gryka’s parents had to helplessly watch their daughter die. In Germany, something like this would be unthinkable—in the Philippines, however, financially weak people cannot even afford a normal doctor’s visit, let alone costly treatment; the money must be put on the table immediately in cash, even in emergencies. There are no health insurance companies that step in later. For the needy who fall ill with cancer, this normally means certain death. I knew only one thing: I had to help. Since the new start in Cebu, where I had been living for a few months, had exhausted all my savings, I could only raise little money myself. But I had the hope that my friends would have something to spare. On short notice, I promised Gryka’s mother to do my best and take her daughter to the hospital that same week.

I also published Gryka’s photo on Facebook, writing that I had convinced myself of the seriousness of the situation. Many of my friends contacted me immediately, including members of the group “Cebu Foreigners Club,” where I had also published the post. In fact, enough donations quickly came together that I could take Gryka to the hospital a few days later. There she was examined and was to be admitted as an inpatient the next day. During the night, however, Gryka’s mother called me: the tumor would not stop bleeding. We immediately drove to the emergency room, Gryka was admitted as an inpatient. The doctors thought for a long time about how to proceed, as the tumor was close to the carotid artery and an intervention was therefore very dangerous. But two weeks later, they decided on an operation—it was the only way to save Gryka. It was a very complicated surgery, but ultimately the doctors were able to remove the tumor completely—a first success. To close the wound after the operation, Gryka additionally needed a skin transplant. I will never forget when she touched her neck for the first time and realized that the huge tumor that had hindered her for so long was gone. But although Gryka had survived everything reasonably well, she was very weakened and exhausted. Unfortunately, her home was not the right place to recover. Fortunately, “Everlasting Hope” had recently opened, a donation-funded facility for children with cancer, which offers small patients and their parents free accommodation. She was lucky enough to receive a place there immediately; since then she has been living with other cancer patients and their parents at Everlasting Hope and feels very much at home there.

After the operation, the tumor was examined several times, but at first, it could not be determined what type of tumor it was. The doctors assumed Neuroblastoma or Rhabdomyosarcoma. Gryka received exhausting but necessary chemotherapy. When I traveled to Germany in October, I had parts of the tumor tested in a laboratory. Here it could be determined that it was actually a metastasis of the Retinoblastoma, with which she had fallen ill three years earlier in her eye. This is very unusual, as the metastasis would normally have developed in the other eye under these circumstances; that it develops on the neck is actually almost impossible. Since this diagnosis in November 2016, Gryka has been treated with chemotherapy for Retinoblastoma, and since January she has additionally received radiation. The costs of chemotherapy are high: for each cycle, medication worth about 400 euros is needed, each radiation costs about 1000 euros. Added to this are doctor’s costs of about 500 euros each time. So far, we have managed to raise the amounts in time with the help of donations—but each time only very narrowly. I received many donations from Facebook friends as well as the Cebu Foreigners Club and various organizations. The Geislinger Zeitung also reported on Gryka’s fate a few months ago, through which further amounts were raised.

In the meantime, Gryka’s treatment has been completed and unfortunately, it was not successful as hoped. The tumor returned despite completed chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

At the beginning of June, on the advice of the doctors here in Cebu, we flew to Manila to possibly find another way to treat Gryka. This was not successful, however. Gryka remained in Manila until August 2017 and was further examined and treated there, but now it was more about giving her a pleasant, pain-free life.

On October 2, 2017, Gryka passed away peacefully in the presence of her family at her home.