Help Symphony fight Acute Myeloid Leukemia
My name is Melody. My sister Symphony Chen was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. My family are shocked and devastated when she was diagnosed with AML, which is very rare in children, at the end of May. Symphony is a very bright and intelligent girl who goes to Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco. She loves study and has GPA of 4.0. She loves music. She self learns how to play piano, guitar, violin and some Chinese musical instruments because our parent wasn’t able to afford to send her to any classes.
Symphony is the youngest of her four siblings. I am the oldest of all who is 19 years old, a freshman of San Francisco State University. She also has a sister who is 17 years and a brother who is 16 years old.
On May 29, 2021, she was admitted to Stanford Children’s Hospital ICU for a week before being transferred to oncology and hematology department to start her chemotherapy treatment. She is currently undergoing a second course of intense chemo treatment. She is very weak and experiencing side effect of weight loss, hair loss and Nausea.
My mother, who has been working very hard to support our family, was unable to work at the time to provide care for Symphony. She stays with Symphony in the hospital 24 hours a day. My dad has disability. He was hit by a drunk driver more than 20 years ago and caused a fracture of his right femur, which damaged the nerve in his right leg and caused muscle atrophy in his right leg. He has to drive 35 miles from home to the hospital every morning to bring foods and changing clothes for my mother and accompany Symphony. He was very tired and his feet were sore and swollen when he got home in the evening. It made me cry.
The thing that worried us the most is the long-term financial burden for our family. My dad was on social security disability benefits which we all know that is very minimum. My mom can’t go to work and has no income. I am a college student and there are one younger brother and two younger sisters who are under 18 who financially still depend on my parents. According to the doctor, Symphony’s AML treatment process is long. She will need to be treated at the hospital for 4-6 months and her recovery and rehabilitation will also require long-term nutritional supplements and huge financial support. Therefore, on behalf of my sister Symphony and my family, I am asking for donations to help our family through the difficulty we are facing now and funding for Symphony’s unforeseen needs in the future. Any contribution is helpful and appreciated. Thank you very much for your support.