WATCH: Helga Krapf breaks down over ailing father

MANILA - On the night before her 25th birthday, as actress Helga Krapf rushed home with hopes of beating the midnight clock, she received a call from her sister.

Their father, who was diagnosed with epilepsy at a young age, was suffering his worst seizure yet and had to be rushed to a hospital.

As she arrived at the hospital, Helga's instinctive reaction was to pray, instilled in her after seeing her father struggle with his illness throughout her life. Not yet, she said in her plea. She wanted more time with her father, more memories to look back to, and more birthdays to spend with him.

A few hours later, a nurse approached her and said that her father was looking for her. She was told that the worst had come to pass, allowing her to breathe a sigh of relief.

Lying in a hospital bed, her father called her over and mustered just enough strength to whisper to her words that brought her to tears: "Happy birthday and I'm sorry if I ruined your special day."

This was how he was as a father, Helga told ABS-CBN News' Gretchen Fullido in an exclusive interview last Sunday, as she recalled their fondest memories.

She talked about how her father tirelessly helped her with her homework when she was a kid, how they played board games together during summer afternoons, and more recently, how her father was smiling as her newborn daughter patted him on his head whenever they came over.

"Naaalala mo 'yung dati naglalaro kayo tapos ngayon hindi na niya magawa. I have a daughter and hindi na niya malaro. Ang lagi ko na lang iniisip is that my daughter, mayroon siyang memory of him growing up. Hindi lang iyong picture ang nakikita niya...mahirap," she admitted.

Helga recently made headlines as she took to social media to appeal for financial help to pay for her father's angioplasty, which she estimated would cost at least P700,000. Years of battling epilepsy had taken its toll on her father's body, who is now unable to feed himself or walk.

Breaking down in tears, Helga shared a conversation she had with her father. "Itong past week, nagsasabi siya sa akin na, 'Promise me that I would die tonight.' Tapos parang sinasabi niya, 'I must die.' Kasi siguro nahihirapan na siya, and alam niyang nahihirapan kami. Pero sinasabi ko sa kanya na huwag siyang magsalita ng ganyan, kaya mo pa yan. Masakit siyang marinig na ganyan sinasabi niya."

A photo posted by Helga Krapf (@krapfhelga) on Nov 2, 2016 at 5:32am PDT

Determined to do everything to keep her father alive, Helga set up Go Fund Me page for her father, which has since garnered more than P100,000 in donations. A fund-raising concert was also organized by some her friends in the showbiz industry.

"I'm sorry if I'm not giving up on you kahit nahihirapan ka. I hope you can let me do this for you," Helga told her father when asked for her message.