Young fighter campaigns to get treatment for rare cancer

Giovana, who is currently fighting cancer, poses alongside former world champion Popó. Photo: Personal archive

Giovana Kreitchamnn Cavalcanti, from Rio Grande do Sul, is a young woman passionate about boxing, a sport she has been practicing for seven years. However, her current fight does not take place in the ring, against an opponent of the same weight and size. Since 2012, she has been facing a rare cancer, the treatment of which is difficult to access and which can cost, in total, approximately R$250.

Giovana is fighting parotid myoepithelial carcinoma, a tumor located in the salivary gland. Although the disease is, in theory, of a low degree of malignancy, it ended up proving aggressive in the case of the gaúcha, spreading throughout her body.

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“When I realized that the tumor was malignant, in July 2012 I underwent surgery to completely remove it. But, when I did the PET/CT [an organism mapping tomography], which every cancer patient does, I saw that there was already lung metastasis. My primary tumor had already spread throughout my body”, Giovana tells SUPER FIGHTS. “We even researched this to find a correct chemotherapy protocol, but we were unable to do so. There is no case similar to mine, not even a specific treatment for it,” she continued.

Thus, Giovana continues to undergo different types of chemotherapy, but sees a new treatment as a chance for a cure: immunotherapy, which has been identified as the most effective for treating tumors in places such as the liver, neck and lung.

The biggest difficulty for Rio Grande do Sul is the financial issue. The medicine he intends to use, Nivolumab, is only available in the United States, and its dose can cost US$24. “This treatment does not exist in Brazil, because it is very new. So I'm asking my doctor to bring it here. It's a chance. It may work very well, as it has done with several patients, or it may not work. It's the same thing that happened with chemotherapies: some were very effective, making the disease regress a little, but others I didn't get a response. It’s a blind treatment, and we have to try it,” she explains.

Giovana's dream is, soon after her cure, to return to boxing, which she is unable to do at the moment due to her low physical resistance. “I love boxing with a passion. It has always been my life, I have always been linked to sport. I would really like to have taken this further, to have fought professionally, but it's a shame that all this happened”, comments the woman from Rio Grande do Sul, who has even had the honor of sharing the ring with former world boxing champion Acelino Popó Freitas.

Popó was passing through the gym where Giovana trains, in Porto Alegre (RS), when the opportunity presented itself. “I was the only girl at the gym who was strong enough to go in the ring, and then they asked me if I wanted to go in the ring with him. I said 'of course! Let's face it!'. We got along very well”, he recalls.

To be able to put on the gloves again, Giovana launched the campaign "Gi – Knocking Out Cancer", with the intention of raising funds for the treatment he needs to undergo.

“Any help is valid, any fundraising. I want to continue the fight, I want to show that cancer has a cure and that I will get out of this. I have a lot of willpower to fight. I won't give up until I heal. I will never give up and I will not let my guard down”, said Giovana.

So far, the company from Rio Grande do Sul has already managed to raise R$117. To contribute to the campaign, simply enter on your page or through Giovana's bank account:

Banco Itaú
Agency: 4056
Current account: 127469
CPF: 02457934028

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