The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
While waiting for bigger breaks in the movies and television, action star Derek Dee is into an outreach program billed as HepCured, an online advocacy to help Hepatitis C patients recover through fast, easy, manageable treatment and reasonable and affordable prices of medicine.
“This is my fight today after fighting hoodlums onscreen,” quipped Derek in an exclusive interview over the weekend in Makati City.
It’s giving back to friends and even strangers after Dee was cured of Hepa C a decade ago by medical professionals who took care and people who led him to proper procurement of cheaper meds for the illness.
According to Derek, when he was initially treated of Hepa C, the cost of its cure was a soaring $90,000.00 from a US distributor. What a fantastic price to pay for his life.
It seemed the actor was saved by another miracle when he discovered a relatively cheaper medicine at $800.00 from India. “It was just as effective as the former treatment I employed,” he qualified.
Derek was candid when he admitted that his drug addiction in the 1970s was the source of his malady which took so long to be diagnosed, accidentally at that. “I was using contaminated needles at that time so I am quite sure my HCV came from them,” he recalled.
It was in Bangkok, Thailand that the former husband of the 1979 Miss International Melanie Marquez got to know he was stricken with the deadly virus. “My former partner (no, not Melanie) and I wanted an In Vitro Fertilization procedure when my doctor found out in my blood test that I contracted the Hepa C virus,” he recounted.
Trials after trials were done on Derek to cure the disease until finally, he was totally healed of the infection.
Sadly, the IVF wasn’t successful, though, in several attempts so the couple gave it up. They soon parted ways as well.
From that time on, Derek promised himself to help and support patients with Hepa C.
He said that he was duty-bound to help his friends suffering from Hepa C who were drug dependents like him. Some survived, others were not lucky because of the severity of their health condition.
At the moment, Derek is doing his advocacy to prevent and cure Hepa C on digital platforms like communication with him through Facebook. “I call on those sick with Hepa C to get in touch with me and I shall instruct them on what to do, especially the treatment with dependent medical practitioners,” he assured.