By Skylar Christensen / Ouida Duncan | Jr. Copywriter / Founder
“Living with scoliosis made has me a better person. I’m more compassionate because of it,”Amanda Bonife-Kiamko recently told Duncan Tree Foundation while discussing the many ways that working with scoliosis patients has changed her. Bonife-Kiamko is the social media volunteer for DTF in the Philippines, where she has been working with scoliosis patients and their families for under one year.
Duncan Tree Foundation relies on many hands to graciously guide patients and their families along the journey to recovery. One of the first people who welcomes them into the process and offers ongoing support is Bonife-Kiamko. Having lived with scoliosis for well over 20 years with continuous treatment to this day, Bonife-Kiamko is able to connect with many new patients.
Bonife-Kiamko was 16 years old when she was diagnosed with scoliosis, and now at the age of 43, is finally being able to envision and live a pain-free life.
Bonife-Kiamko lived with debilitating chronic pain most of her life. Due to not understanding what scoliosis was when she was first diagnosed, Bonife-Kiamko didn’t know how fast the curve in her spine would progress, and when other issues began to arise before of it, surgery was put on the table, yet quickly taken off the table due to her spine being in a degenerative stage and her family’s lack of funds.
For years Amanda Bonife-Kiamko relied on prescription pain killers to make it through the day, referring to herself as, “a walking pharmacy of pain killers.” After years of suffering, just last January 2016, Amanda got fitted for a SpineCor brace, just after her 42nd birthday. The brace is able to be worn discreetly under her clothes, allowing her to do daily activities now pain-free.
As the founder of the Scoliosis Philippines awareness page https://www.facebook.com/ScoliosisPH/ and the Scoliosis Philippines Support Group https://goo.gl/qu9w9L, Bonife-Kiamko saw DTF as an enhanced way to help members of her support group who are underprivileged and in need of surgery.
She started referring patients to apply for the free surgeries sponsored by DTF. She now helps patients with the initial application process so that they can be placed on DTF’s surgical waiting list at Southern Philippines Medical Center and ultimately receive their life-changing surgeries.
Bonife-Kiamko sums up her volunteering for DTF and working with our patients: “My mission is to inform and inspire people through scoliosis awareness and its early detection, and to help the underprivileged. From burden to blessing; from pain to passion and purpose. Fighting scoliosis one spine at a time.”
You can make an amazing difference in our patients’ lives as well. Visit duncantreefoundation.org for more information on how you can become involved and to make a well needed donation for upcoming mission trips to Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago in November and the Philippines in April 2017.
Thank you to all of our supporters, volunteers and sponsors. God bless you all!
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