A transplant is no longer out of reach for children with cancer at PGH

Sheila Romero, founder of the I Want To Share Foundation, with First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and British donor Jonathan Sterling at the Opening of PGH Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Center. MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine General Hospital has opened the country’s first charity bone marrow transplant unit, built so that a child’s survival no longer depends on what their family can pay. First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos led the inauguration of the facility at PGH’s Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Center in Manila on Friday, July 10. The unit was funded by the I Want To Share Foundation (IWTS), the childhood cancer charity founded by Sheila B. Romero, and will be operated by the PGH. Article continues after this advertisement According to the foundation, more than 600 Filipino children with blood-related disorders need the procedure. READ: Child cancer in PH: When inequality decides who lives or dies The unit will offer it for free or subsidized, with priority for charity patients. Its rooms are built for patients with extremely fragile immune systems, following strict infection-control protocols that include HEPA-filtered air systems. Foundation legacy “This is a legacy that the foundation would like to leave,” Romero said. “It’s our promise, our commitment, to continue to help these children every step of the way.” Article continues after this advertisement The stakes are stark. The survival rate of children with cancer in the Philippines is only about 20 percent, Romero said. Behind that figure is poverty, not medicine. Most of PGH’s young cancer patients are indigent, she said, many traveling from the provinces for treatment they cannot always continue. Some families stop coming back. Article continues after this advertisement “It’s a choice between five children with no food or one child with cancer,” Romero said. “We hope that it’s no longer a choice later on — because there is an available facility, there is available financial help.” In her speech, Marcos lauded the health workers, donors, and partners behind the facility, calling it a lasting beacon of hope for vulnerable Filipino families. Self-sustaining ward The ward is designed to sustain itself. Costs will be shared with the hospital, Romero said, and paying patients will help subsidize charity patients, who will have priority. The unit was completed and turned over in about six months, she added. The inauguration caps a decade of work. Since 2015, IWTS has supported PGH with second opinions, chemotherapy, MRI access, nurses’ salaries, and transportation home for patients and their families. In 2024, the foundation renovated the hospital’s pediatric infectious ward, and a leukemia ward is set to follow. Beyond the wards, the foundation runs survivorship programs, including hearing aids for children whose hearing was damaged by chemotherapy, in partnership with a Manila hearing foundation. Its Childhood Cancer Helpline is training barangay health workers and physicians in Bacoor, Cavite, and Santa Rosa, Laguna. Patient navigators at PGH help arriving families land a slot with the right doctor the first time. For children who cannot be saved, the foundation funds palliative care and burial expenses. “We want to give them the dignity of life,” Romero said. None of it happens alone, Romero stressed, thanking the benefactors behind the project — among them British donor Jonathan Sterling — “for the trust that has been given by all of these people.” READ: Jonathan Sterling: Sometimes, hope begins with one generous heart In August 2025, the foundation’s charity gala raised ₱88 million, earmarked for the ward’s second phase and 50 pieces of medical equipment for PGH’s Cancer Institute. Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again. Your subscription has been successful. The first phase has opened its doors. For the next Filipino child who needs a transplant, “it’s no longer a choice.” /atm