Help Cancer Patients Pay for Travel Expenses!

Marlen is a sweet and loving child.  His parents and two older siblings adore him, and everyone who meets him falls instantly in love with him. From birth, he was very active and was growing and developing well. 

He was only 5 months old when he got sick with what looked like a common cold at first.  He had a stuffy nose and began losing weight.  Marlen's doctor advised to wait and see, but a month passed and Marlen's conditon was only worsening. Then after developing fever, vomiting and diarrhea, he was urgently hospitalized.  Shockingly, the blood tests showed suspected blood cancer.  Additional testing confirmed the diagnosis of myeloid leukemia.

Marlen's family was crushed by the news, but they urgently started treatment at the hospital in Marlen's native capital city, Astana after being airlifted from the local hospital.   There Marlen received two cycles of chemotherapy.  At such a young age, chemotherapy is dangerous.  It is best to go for bone marrow transplant from a matching donor as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, there weren't any matching donors for Marlen in the donor registry in Kazakhstan, and the family flew to Turkey where a much larger donor registry is available.  Marlen is now undergoing chemotherapy and an urgent bone marrow transplantation is planned.  

Thanks to your support for this project, we were able to provide Marlen's family with the funds to travel and stay in Turkey.  He now has a chance to beat back cancer, despite difficult circumstances.  Please consider supporting this project again to help more cancer patients who need to travel to access vital care.  On Wednesday, July 16, your donation of $100 or more, would help us get bonus funds from GlobalGiving.  Or sign up for convenient monthly donations, to help us have funds available year-round.  

Once again, thank you for your kindness and care!