Group to hold fundraising run for girl with scoliosis

Trixia Leongas (3rd from left) will be the beneficiary of the Run To Fight Scoliosis, which is organized by Scoliosis Philippines Support Group, Inc. – Cebu Chapter led by its president Gwendale Aranas Ave (extreme right). With them are their fellow scoliosis warriors. | Mars G. Alison

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Thirteen-year-old Trixia Leongas is just like any other 8th grader except that behind her smile, she hides a pain. Not physically but emotionally because her peers call her “buktot” (hunchback) or camel.

This bullying stems from Leongas suffering from severe scoliosis where her spine is so deformed that she appears to have a hunchback.

A person with a hunchback is different from a person with scoliosis, but to the untrained eye and those who do not know much about both conditions, they couldn’t tell one from the other.

This forced Leongas to become shy and to always wear a jacket to hide her deformity.

Leongas, who hails from Dalaguete, though has a chance to become better as she will undergo surgery to correct her severely deformed spine. 

Fundraising

Her fellow scoliosis warriors, members of the Scoliosis Philippines Support Group, Inc. — Cebu Chapter, led by its president, Gwendale Aranas Ave, has decided to help raise funds for Leongas through a run entitled Run To Fight Scoliosis.

The fundraising running event will be held on June 16, 2019, a Sunday, at the Cebu Business Park. 

The run which will start at 5 a.m. will have four distances—1-kilometer which is only open for the scoliosis warriors, 3-kilometer, 6-kilometer and P12-kilometer, all open category.

Registration fees are as follows—for the 1K is P300, 3K is P350, 6K is P450 and P12K is P600.

Those interested can register at Habagat in SM City Cebu and Runnr Cebu in Ayala. Or, register online at https://bit.ly/rtfsregistration.

Participants will get  race bibs, singlets and snacks while the 12K finishers will get a finisher’s medal.

There will also be a free screening to be conducted by the Cebu Doctors University. 

Ave said they’re hoping Velez and Southwestern would also be willing to join them in this endeavour.

No cash prizes will be given out because it is a fundraising event, however, top finishers will get something from the sponsors.  

The running idea

According to Ave, she thought of running because she is a runner despite being scoliotic. 

She shared the idea to her fellow scoliosis warriors and they agreed to hold a running event for Leongas.

Ave said that they chose Leongas as a beneficiary because of the severity of scoliosis wherein her spine had already curved at 115.4 degrees.

Foundation

The group was fortunate enough to get the help of a foundation which guaranteed that the doctor who would do the operation would do it for free.

They also managed to get a discount on the metal plate that will be implanted on Leongas spine which they will now be able to get for about P200,000.

After the surgery, Leongas will have to undergo therapy three times a week at P2,000 per session.

Ave said that treating scoliosis is not cheap, but she said at least now there would be many means available for its treatment.

According to Ave, the Department of Health (DOH) has also agreed to support the event to further promote awareness to scoliosis.

As for Leongas, she said that she had been dreaming of undergoing surgery to correct her spine and she couldn’t wait for it to happen.

The first thing that she would do once she would recover from the surgery would be to travel.

She also dreamed of becoming a doctor someday, one dream that she could achieve since she had been a consistent honor student from Kinder to Grade 7.