James Philippines

ON FEBRUARY 4 2019

LETS US STAND UP FOR KIDS WITH CANCER

LET US SHOUT TO THE WORLD CHILDHOOD CANCER IS CURABLE

JAMES Auste was diagnosed with a rare type of brain cancer in 1996.

He was 19 at the time, a Political Science student at the Ateneo de Manila, and he was very much into sports. He was part of the Philippine football team, pursued mountain climbing with determination, and biked as a hobby. He neither smoked nor imbibed alcohol.

“I was vibrant, active, and led a healthy lifestyle,” he said.

The brain cancer, which he thought would be his end, turned out to be his life’s starting line. Auste was later diagnosed with Panhypopituitarism, a condition where the body does not produce enough hormones that control certain functions, such as metabolism and reproduction. He lost all his hormones while he was undergoing life-affecting cancer treatment.

Cancer brought Auste to Stanford Hospital in California for further examination. He remembered lying on the operating room on his birthday so that his doctor, a famous neurosurgeon by the name of Dr. John Adler, could get his biopsy and chart a strategy for the cure.

“On October 14, my birthday, Dr. Adler opened my head and made a biopsy. Samples were sent to Mayo Clinic. After six weeks of radiation therapy I was declared tumor, cancer-free,” he said. “With the power of science and the miracle of faith, I survived.”

Having conquered two rare medical conditions, he set out to help others, focusing his energy on children with cancers.

He founded the Cancer Warriors Foundation in 2000 and has been running marathons around the world to help children with cancer from low-income families and sustain their medical needs.

The foundation has launched a campaign to educate Barangay health workers about childhood cancer and also lobbied for the reduction of the cost of chemotherapy drugs through legislation. Currently, the foundation is looking to provide free chemo medicines for kids with leukemia in tertiary government hospitals across the Philippines.

James Auste, 40, makes history as one of few exceptional brain cancer warriors who has run major marathons in successive years.

In 2013, he joined his first world marathon in Chicago. The following year, he conquered the Berlin Marathon. He ran the Tokyo Marathon in 2015. In all these races, he would speak as an advocate about his “quest for children to have a normal, healthy, quality life.” 

Everything was going fine then in December 2015, I shocked my family and friends as I was diagnosed with Basel Cell Carcinoma. 

Skin Cancer.

After my fast recovery, that surprised the medical community, we were declared cancer free before Xmas 2015.

After praying, contemplating, meditating and consulting, I have decided to continue our campaign for life in New York.

The New York Marathon is the biggest in the world with more than 51,000 finishers last year.

Part of this “campaign for life” is to raise funds for Filipino children fighting cancer as well as to raise awareness that childhood cancer can be cured.

LET US CONNECT LET US INSPIRE LET US HEAL 

BE THEIR LIGHT IN TIMES OF DARKNESS

 BE THEIR EYES

 BE THEIR AMBASSADOR OF HOPE

 BE THEIR VOICE 

 BE THEIR ANGEL

BE THEIR COMPANION

 BE THEIR GUIDE

 BE THEIR EYES

 BE THEIR MESSENGER

 BE THEIR SAVIOR 

JAMES AUSTE
BRAIN SKIN CANCER WARRIOR
KWC ADVOCATE
SERVANT LEADER

GOD IS GOOD

Source: https://www.worldcancerday.org/story/james-philippines