My brother was in pain and was bleeding for a long time from his rectum. As we were from Ecuador, he was ashamed to say anything to the family. One day he decided to go doctor, and the doctor told my brother that he had a tumor inside his large intestine.

As his sister, he called me from the hospital. I took him out of that hospital and to Memorial Sloan Kettering, and that’s when our nightmare became a reality, and that’s when I became his advocate.