RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

In the coastal town of Grand La­goon, Ma­yaro, where the waves meet the shore at Ec­cles Road, lives 20-year-old Chloe Ram­nar­ine.

Ram­nar­ine is a Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) stu­dent whose life has been turned up­side down by a di­ag­no­sis of can­cer.

Since 2023, she has been bat­tling stage 2B Hodgkin’s lym­phoma, a type of can­cer that af­fects the lym­phat­ic sys­tem.

Once filled with dreams of a bright fu­ture in com­put­er sci­ence, Ram­nar­ine’s world has now been over­tak­en by a bat­tle to sur­vive—a bat­tle that now hinges on rais­ing $980,000 for a life-sav­ing bone mar­row trans­plant in Colom­bia.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Ram­nar­ine said she was di­ag­nosed in Feb­ru­ary 2023 when she dis­cov­ered a small lump on her neck.

“I re­mem­ber feel­ing the lump, get­ting tests, and even­tu­al­ly hear­ing the di­ag­no­sis,” she re­called, wip­ing away tears.

“It was sad, but I was al­so glad to know ear­ly on, rather than at a lat­er stage,” she added.

Ram­nar­ine was forced to stop her stud­ies and be­gan chemother­a­py, en­dur­ing gru­elling rounds of treat­ment that would clear the can­cer, on­ly to have it re­turn.

In March 2024, just two weeks be­fore her uni­ver­si­ty ex­ams, Ram­nar­ine’s doc­tors de­liv­ered the dev­as­tat­ing news: the can­cer had re­lapsed.

“This time, the doc­tors said I need­ed a bone mar­row trans­plant—a pro­ce­dure that is un­avail­able here,” she ex­plained.

She im­me­di­ate­ly be­gan re­search­ing pos­si­ble op­tions and lat­er de­cid­ed on Fun­da­cion San­ta Fe Hos­pi­tal in Colom­bia.

“I didn’t want to trav­el far away, and the cost here was low­er than oth­er places,” she re­vealed.

Her doc­tor helped arrange a con­sul­ta­tion, and she was told the ac­tu­al surgery would cost US$120,000. How­ev­er, with trav­el and liv­ing ex­pens­es, Ram­nar­ine and her fam­i­ly are look­ing to raise US$140,000 or TT$980,000.

Ram­nar­ine said be­cause of her age she does not qual­i­fy for as­sis­tance un­der the Chil­dren’s Life Fund, and her par­ents do not have in­sur­ance to cov­er her med­ical ex­pens­es.

De­spite the toll of chemother­a­py and ra­di­a­tion, Ram­nar­ine re­mains de­ter­mined to one day com­plete her stud­ies.

“Go­ing to school while go­ing through treat­ment was hec­tic,” she said, de­scrib­ing how her body would weak­en, her ap­petite would dis­ap­pear, and nau­sea would con­sume her.

“There were days I couldn’t even get out of bed.”

Ram­nar­ine’s sis­ter Cassey, a stu­dent at Rio Claro West Sec­ondary School, of­ten keeps her spir­its high by play­ing games, draw­ing to­geth­er, and watch­ing TV.

These mo­ments of nor­mal­cy break through the cloud of ill­ness.

“She’s al­ways there to make me smile, even on the worst days,” Ram­nar­ine said, her voice break­ing.

“I try not to let them see me sad,” she added. “I don’t want to bring more stress to my fam­i­ly.”

Ram­nar­ine’s fa­ther, Wazide Ram­nar­ine, a fish­er­man, has promised to do every­thing he can to help her get the treat­ment she needs.

Through it all, Ram­nar­ine said she has re­mained ground­ed thanks to her fam­i­ly, in­clud­ing cousins, aunts, and un­cles who have ral­lied around her.

Her moth­er, Thilly­er Ram­nar­ine, de­scribed the fi­nan­cial strain that can­cer has im­posed on their fam­i­ly.

“When Chloe start­ed chemo, we had to buy the med­i­cine our­selves, some­times spend­ing over $1,000 for just one med­ica­tion,” she said.

“We’ve de­plet­ed our sav­ings, and my hus­band has been jug­gling bills. As par­ents, you want to see your child suc­ceed, and we’re do­ing every­thing to make that hap­pen,” she added with a smile on her face.

The Ram­nar­ines have al­ready or­gan­ised fundrais­ers like bar­be­cues, cur­ry-ques, and sweet sales, which helped raise a por­tion of the mon­ey, and a Go­FundMe has brought in $10,000 so far.

How­ev­er, Thilly­er said time is run­ning out as her daugh­ter needs to be in Colom­bia with­in three months to un­der­go the pro­ce­dure.

De­ter­mined to keep her daugh­ter’s spir­its high, Thilly­er said she re­mains con­vinced that Ram­nar­ine’s treat­ment will be suc­cess­ful.

“They say I am strong, and I guess I have to be. With God’s help and all our prayers, we are keep­ing a pos­i­tive mind,” she said.

“We just want to get over this, raise the funds, and let her live the life she de­serves.”

As she faces the fight of her life, the Ram­nar­ine fam­i­ly is ap­peal­ing to the kind­ness of strangers, hop­ing that Ram­nar­ine’s sto­ry will in­spire oth­ers to help.

“It doesn’t need to be mon­ey. Even shar­ing our sto­ry, of­fer­ing a prayer, or con­nect­ing us to some­one who can help would mean so much,” Thilly­er said.

Ram­nar­ine added, “I just want a chance to live, to fin­ish my ed­u­ca­tion, to sup­port my fam­i­ly, and to con­tin­ue cre­at­ing mem­o­ries.”

Any­one wish­ing to as­sist Ram­nar­ine can call 490-8119 or make do­na­tions to Re­pub­lic Bank Ac­count Num­bers 470-037-149-801 or 470037150131.