RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A year ago, Trinidad and To­ba­go ral­lied around 20-year-old Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies stu­dent and can­cer pa­tient Chloe Ram­nar­ine, and helped her get life-sav­ing can­cer surgery.

Frail yet coura­geous, Chloe stands in re­mis­sion to­day —stronger, hope­ful, and de­ter­mined to use her sec­ond chance at life to up­lift oth­ers walk­ing the same road she once feared she would nev­er leave.

Her jour­ney af­ter be­ing di­ag­nosed with Hodgkin’s Lym­phoma - a type of can­cer which af­fects the lym­phat­ic sys­tem - not on­ly changed her life—it has now sparked a grow­ing part­ner­ship be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Colom­bia’s in­ter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised Fun­dación San­ta Fe de Bo­gotá, the hos­pi­tal that treat­ed her and helped save her life, as well as the HOPE Foun­da­tion from Mi­a­mi, Flori­da.

For Chloe’s moth­er, Thilly­er Ram­nar­ine, the trans­for­ma­tion from last year to this one was in­de­scrib­able.

“This Christ­mas is so hap­py com­pared to last Christ­mas… We went through so much, but the doc­tors in Trinidad did every­thing they could, and in Colom­bia, those peo­ple were so nice, every­thing was smooth. God re­al­ly paved the way,” Ram­nar­ine re­called dur­ing an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia last Fri­day.

She ex­pressed hope that lo­cal health ser­vices would con­tin­ue im­prov­ing so fam­i­lies would not have to trav­el abroad for life­sav­ing care.

Sit­ting be­side her moth­er, Chloe re­count­ed the whirl­wind of the last year. When she left for treat­ment in Colom­bia, she thought she un­der­stood her di­ag­no­sis.

“I knew I was on stage two,” she said.

“But when we went across there and they re­did all the scans—they told me I was ear­ly stage four. I was shocked. I didn’t know it could es­ca­late so quick­ly.”

The cost of care, she says, was an­oth­er fear. But she said the Fun­dación San­ta Fe and the HOPE Foun­da­tion eased that bur­den.

“The bill was per­fect for my case. It cov­ered every­thing—even things we didn’t ex­pect—and my bone mar­row trans­plant.”

To­day, Chloe says she con­tin­ues her af­ter-care in Trinidad, fund­ed per­son­al­ly, and with pro­found grat­i­tude for the chance to en­joy an­oth­er Christ­mas at home.

“It was a roller-coast­er of emo­tions,” she says.

“But al­though I was sick, I didn’t feel sick all the time. I kept a bub­bly mind­set. That helped me a lot.”

Since shar­ing her sto­ry, Chloe has be­come a qui­et men­tor to dozens of young pa­tients who reach out to her pri­vate­ly.

“The main thing they want is not to feel like a pa­tient,” she ex­plains.

“They want to be seen and heard as reg­u­lar peo­ple.”

She lis­tens, shares her ex­pe­ri­ence, and of­fers the kind of em­pa­thy that on­ly some­one who has lived it can give.

“Some­times they just need some­one to talk to, some­one who un­der­stands.”

Ram­nar­ine said her dream now is to for­mal­ly join or cre­ate a foun­da­tion—much like the HOPE Foun­da­tion—that sup­ports young can­cer pa­tients emo­tion­al­ly and fi­nan­cial­ly.

Chloe says she has no­ticed some­thing trou­bling among the peo­ple she speaks with.

“Out of nowhere, teenagers and young adults are get­ting can­cers,” she says.

“We have yet to find a rea­son.”

She be­lieves more re­search is ur­gent­ly need­ed.

“Peo­ple go for a check-up and sud­den­ly find out they have can­cer. It keeps hap­pen­ing. It needs to be stud­ied.” Chloe has a sim­ple plea to na­tion­al au­thor­i­ties.

“They re­al­ly need more help for peo­ple who can­not af­ford treat­ment, es­pe­cial­ly young teenagers and chil­dren. The doc­tors are try­ing, but they don’t have enough re­sources or teams to man­age so many cas­es.”

Asked what she wants to tell peo­ple who are strug­gling this hol­i­day sea­son, Chloe said: “Al­though the sit­u­a­tion can be tough, it doesn’t have to be gloomy.

“You can make your own light in dark sit­u­a­tions. Even small things—go­ing for a walk, spend­ing time with friends or fam­i­ly—can bright­en the mood.”

She has learned, she says, that sad­ness, fear, and even de­pres­sion are part of the process. But they are not the whole sto­ry.

“Not every­thing has to be a sad sto­ry. You can make it hap­py.”

But Chloe’s sur­vival has now led to some­thing even larg­er.

HOPE for oth­er vic­tims

Last Thurs­day, Aishell Sanchez, in­ter­na­tion­al mar­ket­ing and mar­ket di­rec­tor at Fun­dación San­ta Fe, flew from Colom­bia to Trinidad to meet with Chloe for the first time at Guardian Me­dia’s South of­fice.

“I’m here to build bridges,” Sanchez says.

“Trinidad has many pa­tients, es­pe­cial­ly young ones, and not enough re­sources or spe­cial­ists to man­age all cas­es. We want to work to­geth­er to help.”

She said Fun­dación San­ta Fe al­ready ac­cepts pa­tients from Cu­raçao, Aru­ba, Ecuador, Pana­ma, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, St. Vin­cent, and Grena­da—but Sanchez says Trinidad and To­ba­go holds a spe­cial place.

“Colom­bia is a great op­tion be­cause our cul­ture is sim­i­lar to yours,” she said.

“We have the in­fra­struc­ture, the tech­nol­o­gy, and many spe­cial­ists will­ing to help.”

Her hope is that fu­ture agree­ments will give more Trinida­di­ans ac­cess to high-com­plex­i­ty treat­ments like bone mar­row trans­plants—with­out lengthy wait times or over­whelm­ing costs. The Hos­pi­tal has al­so part­nered with Eliz­a­beth Pau­car Har­ris, CEO of HOPE’s Pa­tient Concierge.

To­geth­er, the team in­cludes Tiffany Perez, di­rec­tor of Pa­tient Ser­vices, HOPE Pa­tient Concierge; Vi­viana Be­tan­court, di­rec­tor of Hos­pi­tal Ser­e­na Del Ma; Male­na Rosa­do, HOPE co­or­di­na­tor in Ecuador; Eliz­a­beth Pau­car Har­ris, CEO of HOPE’s Pa­tient Concierge; Ol­ga Mendez, di­rec­tor of Fun­da­cion San­ta Fe; Car­la Emanuele, co­or­di­na­tor in Ecuador and Ka­ri­na Orel­lana, HOPE co­or­di­na­tor in Ecuador.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Pau­car Har­ris said Chloe’s sto­ry re­flects what many Caribbean pa­tients face: long wait­ing lists, lim­it­ed lo­cal tech­nol­o­gy, and dif­fi­cul­ty find­ing spe­cialised treat­ment.

“The dif­fi­cul­ties Chloe faced are un­for­tu­nate­ly com­mon,” she said.

“Many com­plex can­cer treat­ments are lim­it­ed or un­avail­able lo­cal­ly.”

She said HOPE steps in to close that gap.

“Our mis­sion is to guide pa­tients through the dark­est mo­ments of their med­ical jour­ney. When they fear there are no op­tions left, we work to show them there al­ways are.”

She be­lieves Chloe’s tri­umph will rip­ple out­ward.

“Chloe’s jour­ney is a pow­er­ful ex­am­ple of what be­comes pos­si­ble when pa­tients re­ceive time­ly guid­ance and ac­cess to the right spe­cial­ists. Her sto­ry shows oth­ers they are not alone,” Paucer Har­ris said.

From a fright­en­ing di­ag­no­sis of Hodgkin’s Lym­phoma to a sec­ond chance at life, Chloe’s ex­pe­ri­ence has be­come more than a per­son­al vic­to­ry. It is now dri­ving new part­ner­ships, open­ing new av­enues for treat­ment, and light­ing a path for oth­ers who will face the same fears she once did.

Chloe can be reached at 490-8119. The Colom­bia hos­pi­tal can be emailed at in­ter­na­cional@fsfb.org.co.