DAVAO CITY, Philippines (UCAN) -- Six year-old Jerk Esparagoza now speaks of things that make him "happy" after friends, officials, civic group members and strangers helped pay the expenses for his medical treatment.

"I like chocolates" and toy cars, and "I want to become a boxer like Manny Pacquiao," the boy told UCA News on April 7 at the launch of Cancer in Children Awareness Month in Davao City, 965 kilometers southeast of Manila.

He said he felt "so happy" last month when he met the world boxing champion, who lives in General Santos City, near Jerk's home province of Sarangani, southwest of Davao.

For years, Jerk has been dealing with the pain and complications of leukemia, the blood cancer that has made him weak and prone to infection and bruises. He said every time he was pricked with a needle during treatment at Davao Medical Center (DMC), "I would sing habang may buhay (while there is life) and pray to God to help me."

Since the start of April, Davao archdiocese's DXGN and other local radio stations in the Catholic Media Network have featured children including Jerk who are fighting cancer.

The Department of Health in 2004 dedicated April to activities creating public awareness of pediatric cancer to encourage support for the children and their families. This year it launched the observance in Davao City, site of DMC, the only hospital in Mindanao, the southern Philippine region, with facilities to treat these children.

According to DMC pediatric oncologist Mae Dolendo, around 600 children had been recorded as having cancer in Mindanao as of 2007, about half of them with leukemia. She suspects, however, this may be "just the tip of the iceberg" and many other cases are undiagnosed and unreported, she told UCA News at the launch.

The doctor, who led the medical team that treated Jerk, said the boy "has been an inspiration for us and the other children" at DMC and House of Hope, the residence for child patients and their families where he stays.

Jerk said he was happy to make "many" friends at DMC and House of Hope, but "felt sad" when his best friend, CJ, also ill with leukemia, died in 2006.

"I don't want to die yet," he added.

The boy said he keeps a little Santo Nino (holy child) statue at his bedside because it "comforts" him and helps him sleep.

His mother, Evelyn Esparagoza, accompanied him to the launch. The village nutrition worker in Malungon, Sarangani, admitted to UCA News her son's cancer tested her faith. But she also said she saw how God loves her son and family from the kindness strangers have shown.

She recalled Jerk was diagnosed in 2004 after a neighbor lent her the fare to Digos City, where she brought her weakening toddler to be examined at Davao del Sur Provincial Hospital.

For three months while Jerk was confined there, she and her husband, a utility worker at a local lending firm, had to take turns caring for him and the rest of their six children while continuing with their jobs.

When she was about to lose hope, the local Yellow Bus Company offered to let them ride its buses free to Digos City. Later the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office donated medicine worth 2,500 pesos (about US$60 at the time) for Jerk's chemotherapy.

Students and teachers of Malalag-Cogon Elementary School in Sarangani also donated money, and the mayor of Malungon paid part of Jerk's hospital expenses.

When Jerk's condition worsened in 2005, the provincial hospital sent him to DMC. Dolendo's team treated him, and in 2007 he and family members were able to stay at House of Hope.

The seven-bedroom shelter with a kitchen and a vegetable garden temporarily houses child patients of the hospital and their families for free through funding from the Rotary Club of Waling-Waling, Davao.

Dolendo, a Rotary member, pushed the civic organization to fund the facility for patients like Jerk who live far from Davao City and cannot afford the fare for long-term treatment at the hospital. Since it was established in 2007, House of Hope has served around 300 patients, Dolendo estimated. She said volunteers also conduct activities for children.

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