Cancer Patient Florence's Heartfelt Appeal for Her Needs

Florence Guiao Mandap was born on 28th November 1995 and grew up in the village of Betis, Guagua, Pampanga in the Philippines.

She was referred to me by my friend Dexter Gallaza who belong to our community at Palmerston North. As they're new in New Zealand, she & her husband Allen Paul Mandap were looking for a Filipino community who could be with them in their most difficult moment.

Few months ago (10th of April), while she was working at Colwyn Nursing Home in Hastings, she felt an intense headache & numbness in the left side of her body. She thought that she was having a stroke, but the doctors found out that she had a tumor as big as a fruit in her brain which was affecting her motor skills.

They removed the cancerous tumour, but they found out it has spread into other parts of her body. She had just undergone her last chemotherapy on the 7th of July 2025 which was causing a potentially fatal blood infection. She's now in palliative care with continuous pain medication stronger than morphine.

After her doctors told her that they're going to stop the treatments, she made a decision along with her husband to leave NZ in the next few days or weeks and to go home to the Philippines to stay with her nieces and close relatives with whatever time she has left to continue with her alternative treatments and pain management.