It was a three-year journey
Back in late 2019, when the foundation my sister and her friends had set up decided to mount their initial fund-raising activity, the first targeted beneficiary was the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and their breast cancer patients. Brought on board as the sole male director of the foundation and tasked to assist them in the marketing and fund-raising ideas, we decided to call the foundation HWAO—Helping Women & Others. And soon after, we got our first truly HWAO moment, when the foundation was bolstered by the news that Estée Lauder Companies was ready to throw their support behind our declared project of constructing and equipping the PGH with a new chemotherapy compounding clean room.
Allow me to backtrack a bit. My sister Libet C. Virata, along with Tang Singson and Bettina Osmena, are breast cancer survivors and are members of I Can Serve (ICS). I worked with their ICS sub-committee on the three years of the successful fundraiser Fashion Can Serve. ICS is founded on the advocacy of early detection of breast cancer, and teaching women to self-examine. What HWAO wanted to do was address the ones already afflicted, and challenged by the cost and efficiencies of treatment. And when forming HWAO, we ‘recruited’ Camille Samson (herself a cancer survivor), Elena Coyiuto, and the mother-daughter tandem of Gina and Marga Aboitiz (Marga an Aboitiz-Zobel).
The idea then was to double the capacity of PGH’s cancer ward in preparing the chemo "cocktails" that the cancer patients would regularly troop to PGH for. It was a bottleneck situation, as explained to us by PGH Director Dr. Gap Legaspi and the Head for the Cancer Ward Dr. Jorge Ignacio. With the then existing complement of two bio-hoods in a room that was rudimentary in space and construction, some 60 batches could be mixed daily, but there were more than 120 patients who would show up on any given day as charity out-patients. It was also explained how the safety measures in place in the chemo compounding room were outdated. It's a health risk for the one mixing the batches.
Estée Lauder Companies’ generous contribution financed the acquisition of two new biohoods. With the fundraising that the likes of Security Bank, Jewelmer, and the friends of HWAO were instrumental with the construction of a new clean room, the latest in global safety standards was achieved as Architect Dan Lichauco explained. While the hope back in 2019 was to complete the room in a year or so, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on those plans. It’s only now, on March 31, 2022, that we formally launched the new, vastly improved, PGH chemotherapy compounding clean room.
In simple but meaningful ceremonies, both Sharyn Wong of Estée Lauder Companies, and Tanya Deakin of Security Bank, talked about the commitment their respective companies had for women and health, and how proud they were to be part of this endeavor. Dr. Gap Legaspi was grateful for how the private sector and foundations such as HWAO have recognized the work of the PGH, and the fact that with limited funds, it’s so important that foundations like HWAO, continue to lend a helping hand.
Most touching was Dr. Ignacio, reminding us all that we are literally "saving lives." The number of cancer patients who are sadly turned away on a daily basis would surprise most people. This doubling of the PGH’s capacity to mix the demo cocktails would go a long way in helping the institution treat so many more patients. And he talked about how important timing could be in these treatments being effective. As head of his department, he was equally happy with the new safety standards built into the new clean room.
At HWAO, there’s always been full appreciation for the ICS advocacy. We loved how founder Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala joined us for the room’s unveiling. The idea for HWAO was how to fund projects that are connected to cancer care, and yet potentially hit a critical number of people. We’re eternally grateful to Estée Lauder Companies, Security Bank, Jewelmer, and to the friends of HWAO for helping make this clean room a much delayed, but now existing, facility. And now, on to the next project!