Fighting for a cause - Mullings pushing to help sick nephew
Published:Friday | July 27, 2018 | 12:00 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
Former Contender boxing champion and local favourite Sakima Mullings continues his fight to assist and highlight the plight of his two year-old nephew, Peter Mullings Jr, in his fight against cancer.
Mullings, who donated his entire match fee from his undercard win against Alejandro Hernandez at Wednesday night's Wray and Nephew Contender series final at the National Indoor Sport Centre to his nephew's rising medical bill, said his young family member was his main motivation coming into the bout and that losing was not an option.
"I went into the fight with a mentality that I refuse to lose. My nephew, Peter Mullings Jr, has been battling cancer. He has been diagnosed as terminally ill by the doctors here in Jamaica.
"He has a lot of - and soaring - medical expenses and my contribution to assisting his condition is that I am going to donate all of my purse to his medical treatment and try to bring awareness to his plight," he told The Gleaner after claiming his win over Hernandez, who retired early in the fight.
$3 MILLION BILL
Mullings said the family is in need of over $3 million just to commence treatment for the youngster and says any assistance would be more than welcome.
"It is a very expensive treatment and the help from myself and his family is not enough to combat the situation. So I am hoping to bring awareness to his situation in an effort to try and get some more assistance.
"We are looking at about US$25,000 (J$3.3 million) just to start the treatment, and my purse is just a drop in the bucket, but I will continue to fight [to assist him] and bring awareness to his situation, as he continues to go through his treatment, but I will continue to contribute," Mullings said.
Mullings Jr has been battling with wilms tumor, the most common cancer found in children and which also affects the kidneys, for more than a year now. After all medical options in Jamaica were exhausted, his family took him to the United States last week in search of advanced medical care, but funding his treatment has been a major challenge.
The family has established a GoFundMe account, and has also set up accounts at Jamaica National (JN) and National Commercial Bank, where members of the public can make contributions.