Physical Health United States Project #6066

Help Cancer Patients Find Bone Marrow Donors!

by Advita Fund USA

Project Report | Mar 4, 2019
Five patients have been helped!

By Marina Ouano | Project Leader

Ekaterina

We have great news to report: thanks to your generosity during the holiday season, we were able to transfer $30,000 to the registry in Germany and use these funds to help pay off debts of 5 blood cancer patients! What a great way to start a year for these patients! Your financial support is much appreciated and will help the patients breathe a bit easier as they continue on their path to recovery.

Here is a couple of stories of the patients who have received your support this time:

Anastasia is from a small town in Siberia. She is an elementary and English teacher who loves her job and her students. In 2009 Anastasia had a daughter. All was going great. But in 2014 she got sick with a regular cold, it seemed. However, her blood test was abnormal and then a biopsy showed that she had issues with her bone marrow, and so all of a sudden Anastasia was diagnosed with leukemia. It was a difficult time, as she not only had to battle cancer, but also deal with a dissolution of her marriage. Anastasia achieved remission and stayed on maintenance chemo for two years. Things were getting back to normal. She even met someone and got married again. But then leukemia returned in January 2018 and the treatment had to be restarted. This time Anastasia has support of her husband, and their two children. She is in remission, but for the remission to be sustained, she needed bone marrow transplant from a donor. On Valentine's Day, she received transplant from a foreign donor and is now recovering.

Ekaterina is from St. Petersburg. She is a mom of two little boys: her oldest in the 2nd grade, and the youngest just a year old. In May 2018 Katya was diagnosed with myelomonoblastic leukemia. She is very artistic and a designer by profession. She loved her interior designer job, and enjoyed traveling, yoga and caring for the boys. All of it changed in last April when Katya started feeling fatigued, became nauseous and lightheaded. By now she completed several rounds of chemotherapy, but bone marrow transplant is a necessity in her situation. Katya's brother did not match her as a donor, and the family had to search for the donor abroad. While they were able to raise about a third of the required amount, they needed support of others to pay off the registry bill. In December Katya received a transplant from donor. She is still undergoing recovery and fighting off infections that developed due to her low immunity.

We are wishing Anastasia and Ekaterina speediest recovery! Thank you for your support of these courageous young women and others like them!

Anastasia

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Dec 5, 2018
The End is Near

By Marina Ouano | Project Leader

Oleg and his wife

The year is coming to an end, and what a year it has been! But no matter how uncertain and volatile the things are in the wider world, our work remains constant and focused on the same goals as in the past: helping cancer patients access modern treatments. To this end, we have supported 7 patients with blood cancers and spend over $43,000 to allow them to afford bone marrow donor searches. These are people of all ages, of different professions and from various regions of Russia. The only thing that unites them is their diagnosis - something that happened to them randomly, out of nowhere. It's not only an emotional shock, but a financial disaster, as so many costs of treatment the patients are expected to pay on their own - including searches for a foreign bone marrow donor for those who need them.

Oleg is the patient we supported most recently. He was born in Kazakhstan, but after the Soviet Union collapsed, he moved his family to St. Petersburg. Oleg loves to travel and he had worked as a driver his whole career. In 2017 he was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood disorder that can transfom into leukemia. Only bone marrow transplant from a donor can cure Oleg. Unfortunately, no matching donors were found within Russia and the search was extended to the donor registries abroad where there are several potential matches. Oleg's family already made an initial payment of 6,000 euros to the registry after selling his daughter's apartment. However, they could not afford to pay off the balance of the registry bill. Your help allowed us to transfer 6,900 euros to the registry and help Oleg with this financial burden.

There are many other patients like Oleg: people of modest means, breadwinners, parents of young children. Very rarely there are patients who can afford cancer treatment on their own. Most patients will need our help at some point in their treatment journey. We hope you can consider making a gift to these people as part of your holiday giving. One of the best gifts would be a recurring donation, since patients need help throughout the year, not just during holidays. Now is the best time to sign up, as until December 31st Global Giving will add an additional 100% match on the initial donation (up to $200 per donor) as long as it remains active for at least four consecutive payments!

Thank you for supporting us this year! We wish you a joyful holiday season and a happy New Year!

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Sep 10, 2018
Will you help Yuri defeat lymphoma?

By Marina Ouano | Project Leader

Yuri

Yuri is 25 years old. It seemed that his life was on the right track. Yuri graduated from high school and enrolled into a mining college. He led a healthy lifestyle, was active in sports and enjoyed traveling with his parents. He even made plans to marry his girlfriend Ksenia.

However, since 2007 Yuri had enlarged lymph nodes on his neck. Initially, the doctors were not concerned. In 2010 they began growing rapidly, and Yuri underwent evaluation again. This time, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, cancer of lymphatic system. Yuri was shocked by the news, but with his girlfriend's support he began treatment and achieved remission. For several years, all was well: Yuri returned to school and his usual active lifestyle.

Unfortunately, in 2014 he began showing signs of disease recurrence, and the treatment had to be restarted. Bone marrow transplant was needed to help Yuri sustain remission. In 2015 Yuri was evaluated, but treatment in his local clinic was not successful, and in 2016 he was referred to St. Petersburg for therapy with newer drugs that were recently approved for lymphoma. After many months on treatment, Yuri's disease is now in remission and he is finally ready for bone marrow transplant. Since he does not have a matching donor in Russia, the doctors initiated a search abroad. Yuri's family resources are exhausted after years of treatment, and they need our help.

If you would like to help Yuri and patients like him, support our project during Bonus day that starts on September 12th (7 am Moscow time) and ends on September 13th (4 pm Moscow time). All donations up to $1,500 will get a bonus from GlobalGiving, proportionally to the total amount raised. Or sign up for automatic monthly donations, and receive 100% bonus after 4 monthly payments.

Thank you so much for your support!

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