The country's sports patrons continue to help sports development programs including the travel expenses of a cancer-survivor, one of the photographers granted accreditation to cover Chapter IV of the storied Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez rivalry on December 8 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Photographer Wendell Rupert Alinea became probably the first cancer-survivor to cover a world championship match when Magda Media International, the outfit who handles media requirements of all fights held at the MGM Grand, granted him credentials to do the Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley bout last June.
This time, Alinea is out to captivate the images and human drama of the storied rivalry to finally determine who among the two boxing greats are more superior come fight night.
Alinea will contribute photographs for the People's Journal and People's Tonight, Manila Standard, Philippines News Agency (PNA) and philboxing.com. He will work in tandem anew with his father, veteran sportswriter Eddie Alinea.
The young Alinea's trip to the United States was made possible with the assistance of Pacquiao himself, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) under chairperson Margarita Juico and businessman-sportsman Manuel V. Pangilinan.
Pangilinan, MVP to the sports and business worlds and owner of the Talk 'N Text and Meralco teams in the professional Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), and Pacquiao, also shared resources in sending Wendell to the US last June.
"Wendell, in surviving the dreaded leukemia, had shown extraordinary will to live, reason why I am helping him to serve as inspiration to others with the same predicament na sa tulong ng Maykapal at sa pamamagitan ng panalangin, may pagkakataon pa ring mabuhay," Pacquiao, who, actually, is virtually shouldering Alinea's treatment, said.
"Wendell showed proof that miracles, indeed, happen. His unstained belief in the Almighty carried him through the sufferings for six long years," said MVP, president of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) and chair of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP). "I hope that the lesson in his determination to survive will drive others to do the same."
Chair Juico shared the same sentiment, saying, "In God, everything is possible and this our Creator showed through Wendell."
Wendell was pronounced by his physician, Dr. Francisco Lopez, cancer-free early this year but still has to undergo chemotherapy until January 2013 to ensure that his ailment won't relapse.
In January 2007, Wendell was diagnosed with the very rare Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia and had been in and out of the hospital, undergoing several cycles of chemotherapy.
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