Manuel and his mother, Cristina moved to the United States five years ago. His mother owns her own business and cleans houses. Manuel first noticed something was wrong when he had a bad pain in his shoulder. He and his mother spent months going in and out of the hospital, until finally he was able to get scans that found a tumor. He had continued going to school through the testing, but when he got his diagnosis, he was forced to stay home. This was his senior year. Luckily, he had completed enough credits and was able to graduate and get his diploma, but treatment forced him to miss his graduation ceremony.

Manuel’s mother was shocked to discover that he had cancer. He had been a happy and healthy child until then, and her family had no history of the disease. She stopped cleaning houses in order to take care of Manuel. Her helper tried to continue, but customers complained and they were forced to stop entirely. This meant no income for two months.

Cristina says that JUST TRYAN IT’s grant brought relief for Manuel’s family: “Your grant paid our rent for many months and the money that I got from the grant goes to buy healthy, organic food for Manuel so that he can stay strong for his treatments. It is very hard to see your only son sick and to have to worry about having no money on top of that was very hard. This money meant that I could just focus on Manuel.”

She continues, “The doctor and I hope for Manuel. The surgery removed his tumor and he has five more cycles of treatment. Hopefully he is close to the end of the treatment. Last day of September – five sessions of treatment. Manuel wants to go to college and we are hoping that after treatment is finished he can get a part time job and then start applying for college. We definitely need help with that, I don’t know anything about applying for college. Thank you so much for this help, I never thought I would need something like this and you were able to help us and it made such a difference.”

JUST TRYAN IT provided Manuel’s family with a Deep Needs Grant. His family used this grant to pay their rent and buy groceries.

February 2024 Update
It’s been a busy couple of months for Manuel! In November, his CT came back clean and in December, he rang the bell, marking the official end of his cancer treatment! Manuel also started at the University of Towson in December! He is now happily visiting his family in Peru, which his mother, Cristina, says is experiencing “a very beautiful summer”.

His mother would also like to thank JUST TRYAN IT for the support we provided their family while Manuel was in treatment.