During an interview with local news outlets, the grieving widow Mariela reportedly said: “My friends, I never imagined making this post. I never prepared myself for this moment because I was always convinced Regis would make a full recovery. It’s an indescribable pain. The ground has opened up and I don’t know what life will be like without his affection, companionship and absolute love.” According to Mariela, her husband reportedly died of the same disease which took the lives of their 3 children.
Seven years ago, the 53-year-old dad and his 3 children learned that they all had Li-Fraumeni syndrome or LFS. In January, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma — a cancer affecting white blood cells. Eight months later he died, leaving behind his wife Mariela who said the pain was ‘indescribable’ and that she had been sure he would beat the disease. Their youngest 10-year-old daughter, Beatriz, died in 2018, while their son Pedro, died in 2020, after suffering a brain tumor.
Their eldest 25-year-old, Anna, died in 2022 aged 25 after also being diagnosed with a brain tumor. At the time of her diagnosis the year before, she was engaged and had just become a doctor — with plans to specialize in dermatology, the Daily Mail reported. According to the experts, people with LFS are most likely to suffer cancers in the bones, muscles and connective tissues as well as breast cancer, brain tumors, leukemia and cancer in the adrenal gland. Per reports, the unfortunate family was first struck by cancer many years ago when the eldest Anna, who was 12 at the time, was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia.
She went through radiotherapy and chemotherapy against the disease for three years before being declared cancer free. But when Regis was diagnosed with a similar blood cancer in 2016, after suffering fever, neck swelling and muscle weakness, he became suspicious. That same year his son Pedro was also diagnosed with bone cancer, or osteosarcoma, in his left leg. According to his wife, Regis said he was never blamed for the cancer by his children, however, who said he was ‘as much a victim as they were’. After the diagnosis of the genetic condition, the family would go for regular medical checkups.