In memory of her father, the late Senator Rene "Compañero" Cayetano whose 69th birth anniversary was yesterday, Pia led this morning a pack of 50 cyclists from different biking clubs to a grueling three-kilometer trek to Baguio City by way of the torturous Kennon Road.
The "Bike for Hope" participants set off from Pozzurubio in Pangasinan at 7 a.m. riding up to Baguio City to reenact the late senator’s valiant fight against a killer ailment.
Cayetano was afflicted with hepatitis B and he had to go to the United States for the very expensive liver transplant. Today, many Filipinos are afflicted with the same disease and those who need a liver transplant have to go abroad in the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan, at staggering costs of P20 to 25 million, P9 million and P3 million, respectively. Pia said that there are many competent Filipino liver transplant surgeons who have trained with the best in the United States and other countries but could not do the operation here for lack of facilities and trained nurses.
Through her initiative, the PGH already reserved an area in the hospital for the center but still needed an estimated P40 million for equipment and other facilities. She hoped that "Bike for Hope" which would be held in all parts of the country by different cycling clubs would start the ball rolling for the establishment of the center.
"Such a facility here will greatly lessen the cost of the liver transplants and other organ transplants as well like heart, lung and kidney and save many lives," she said.
She recalled that it was her father’s desire to put up this center when he returned home, but he did not live long enough to fulfill his dream for our countrymen. For sponsorships for "Bike for Hope," kindly contact 813-2405 and look for Dean or Lani.