THE La Sallian community has put up a blood donation and fund-raising drives for table tennis Olympian Ian Lariba after she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a type of blood cancer.
The family of Lariba, through her alma mater, announced on its twitter DLSU Sports that the La Salle alumnus was diagnosed with the blood-related illness and will begin treatment at the St. Luke’s Medical Center.
“We request the La Sallian community to extend assistance and support to Yan Yan during this time,” said the tweet.
Earlier, the same twitter account requested for donations from Type O blood owners.
Lariba, undefeated in her five years of playing for DLSU in the UAAP table tennis competitions, was the only Filipino table netter ever to qualify in the Olympics.
She saw action in the Rio de Janeiro games, together with silver weightlifting medal winner Hidilyn Diaz.
According to webmd.com, AML is a type of blood cancer that “usually begins in cells that would turn into white blood cells. Sometimes, though, AML can start in other types of blood-forming cells. Acute myeloid leukemia starts in the bone marrow. This is the soft inner parts of bones.”
The medical website also said “without treatment, AML can quickly be life-threatening. Because it’s acute, this type of leukemia can spread quickly to the blood and to other parts of the body, such as the Lymph nodes, Liver, Spleen, Brain and spinal cord.”
Donations can be sent to Imelda N. Lariba through her BDO bank account no. 870-007-459df and UCPB account no. 104120046272. For proper documentation, please email transaction slip to [email protected].
For more details, check DLSU Sports twitter account.
For blood donors, they may proceed to the blood bank of St. Lukes Medical Center in Quezon City.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission also expressed support to extend help to Lariba.
“We have an order from chairman [Butch] Ramirez to closely monitor her condition and we are ready to give support to our Olympian Ian Lariba,” said Ronnel Abrenica, PSC Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary to the Chairman.