I have always believed in God. I have always believed in Jesus Christ. I am a Marian devotee. I am a Catholic, practising to the best I can.
I was recently hospitalized and was carefully watched by a team of dedicated and brilliant doctors of St. Luke’s Global City. I am afraid of blood, needles, and any medical procedures but thank God I made it through the rain and the blood extraction.
Dr. Erlyn Demerre is Nanay’s cardiologist. She is our family’s cardiologist. She is both friend and family. Her brilliance, expertise and compassion have touched and saved thousands of lives. Dr. Demerre is the founder and chairman of the board of EPCALM (Erwin Piedad Cabanag Adult Leukemia Ministries), a Christ-centered, non-stock, non-profit organization that reaches out to help leukemia patients and their families. She has made it her personal advocacy since her brother lawyer Erwin Cabanag, who was the city fiscal of Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental, passed away due to leukemia on May 12, 2005.
Today, the first adult leukemia foundation in the Philippines is known as the EPCALM Adult Leukemia Foundation of the Philippines, Inc. Dr. Demerre explains, “The message of EPCALM is really not unique. It’s simply putting into action what we have been taught and what we learned ever since we could grasp and understand that there is a God of the Universe who cares for all of us. We need to shed a little for others — our time and talents. To share unconditionally and without motives except to help save a life and to make a difference no matter how small. To help add quality to the rest of the life of one person at a time. Assist the patients in finding hope even through the most hopeless of situations. EPCALM stands on God as the Hope, the Healer and the Provider.”
See more of Boy Abunda’s Direct Line article in the Philippine Star dated October 11, 2014:
http://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2014/10/11/1378756/what-you-should-know-about-epcalm
