Help Cancer Patients Find Bone Marrow Donors!

In May our project participated in the Bonus day.  A new approach was taken:  while all donations made within a certain period were eligible for the bonus, the percentage was not known until two days later.  We raised the total of $1,807 and the bonus amounted to 25.91%.  Thank you everyone who participated!   And take a note of even better opportunity coming up in July:  on July 15th, as a Superstar project, we will be able to get a 50% match to the donations.  Stay tuned for more information!

So where did we use the money raised?  In March we transferred over $5,600 for donor search for Nikolay, an ambulance driver from Krasnodarsky krai, whose story we shared on our Facebook page.

And recently we transferred $12,425 for the donor search for Anton, a young engineer, who has lived his whole life in Perm, a city in the Urals. Anton is an avid aquarium hobbyist, a builder, and a walking encyclopedia, according to his wife.  They have met when they were both 30, and were very happy together. But just months after the wedding, Anton was diagnosed with a blood disorder: myelodysplastic syndrome, refractory anemia. In the last three years Anton received 10 rounds of chemotherapy and many cycles of less toxic maintenance chemotherapy.  Unfortunately, in June of 2014 he had a relapse.  His only chance to overcome the disease is bone marrow transplant from a donor. Initially, there were no matching donors in the international registry or among his relatives.  Anton had to begin therapy with a very expensive new drug, which exhaused any resources the young family had.  And recently, after another search in the registry, several new potential matching donors were found.  We are hopeful that Anton can now have a chance for transplant and will get his life back soon. 

Thanks for your support, and have a great summer!

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