SHE brightens up any place. Her mere presence turns into darkness into light. And without even saying a word, she spreads hope. Just like an angel descended from Heaven.

Countless grateful patients and their families — whom she has given more blessed leases on life — revere her as a miracle worker.

They fondly call her Dr. Amy Goleta Dy.

Dr. Amy Dy is more than just a pediatric oncologist. To her young cancer patients bewildered by their illnesses, she is the other parent who can answer their endless questions, the other parent who can soothe their inexplicable pain, and the other parent who gives them the extra strength to fight on.

Dr. Dy has been the founding and active chairman for 20 continuous years of the Philippine Board of Pediatric Oncology, the national organization that certifies a doctor to be competent in the diagnosis and treatment of cancers in children.

In 1989, the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and UP Manila selected Dr. Amy Dy to be the recipient of a study grant funded by the Australian government, becoming the first Filipino doctor to be formally trained in pediatric oncology in Australia. After her training at the Oncology Unit of the prestigious Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney, she returned to the Philippines in December 1991 to begin a fascinating journey of achievement in the field of medicine which, aside from treating innumerable children with cancer over the next decades, included important positions at various times as Head of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at PGH, Head of Pediatric Oncology at St. Luke’s Medical Center BGC, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the National Children’s Hospital, and President of the Philippine Society of Pediatric Oncology.

She also helped initiate the first training program in pediatric palliative care in the Philippines, which is supported by trainors from Australia and Canada. In addition, she collaborated with Dr. Elena Ladas of Columbia University for the Nutrition Care for Children with Cancer in the Philippines, a project that continues to this day. Moreover, she was the author of the chapter on Solid Tumors in the Fundamentals of Pediatrics, a textbook used by medical students and resident physicians in the Philippines.

It was thus fitting that, on February 26, 2024, Dr. Amy Dy received the Australia Alumni Excellence Awards Special Citation for Health given by the Australian Embassy in Manila.

It was not only a recognition of her major role in helping establish pediatric oncology as a medical specialty in the Philippines, but also as a testament of the role Australia played in making that possible.

Dr. Dy’s plans for the future are ambitious and promising. While she continues her clinical practice in pediatric oncology at the St. Luke’s Medical Center and Manila Doctors Hospital, and in mentoring her younger colleagues as part of the Pedia Hema Onco Team Philippines, she is also increasingly focused on philanthropy.

As the Executive Director of the Cancer Treatment and Support Foundation Inc. since its founding in 2002, she aims to expand its impact on improving the quality of life of patients and raising public awareness about cancer.

Among the current projects are Giving Joy to Children with Cancer, Sponsor Children with Cancer, Provision of Cancer Medicines, Nutrition Care Program for Children with Cancer and Blood Disorders, Cancer Awareness campaign, Immune Booster Program, You can Hug Me, Caring for Caregivers and Health Workers, and the Floating Library. Among the exciting plans include the rapid expansion of the pediatric palliative care program and supporting more training programs for pediatric oncology in the country.

The Foundation has helped more than 5000 patients and families already and aims to continue expanding into the future. For those who are interested in helping, please visit https://the-cancer-foundation.org.

Her recent nomination to the National Integrated Cancer Control Council of the Philippines, created under Republic Act 11215, is another stepping stone towards the realization of her plans into the future. She hopes to be able to influence the mindsets of concerned policy-making officials, and to inspire and share her wisdom and experience so that the future of our society will be better.

To the thousands of young souls and their loved ones she has helped heal — physically, psychologically, emotionally and socially — Dr. Dy is not just an oncologist in a white robe. She is a Godsend clothed in heavenly wings.

A mother who will never tire of thanking her and the Heavens for saving her daughter decades ago from leukemia, perhaps echoes the sentiment of all of those whose lives Dr. Dy has touched.

“Dr. Dy is the female David against the medical Goliath called pediatric cancer. What makes her a cut above the rest is the fact that she puts her soul in every patient. She treats every ailing child as an ordinary kid, a human being, and not just a number or a case in the hospital chart. More than the chemo drugs and procedures, her humanity and pure compassion have been major factors in every patient’s healing. The expressions ‘thank you’ and ‘we love you’ apparently came to be for specially divine, exceptionally special reasons. One of them is Dr. Amy Dy.”