Help Children with Cancer Access Treatment!

Vadim is a 14-year-old boy from Ukraine. The story of his illness began in 2013 with an inflamed lymph node that quickly led to an avalanche of increasingly serious symptoms: fever, weight loss, and fatigue. Within days, a terrible diagnosis was made: stage IV anaplastic large cell lymphoma.  Vadim underwent six high-dose chemotherapy cycles, and achieved remission. He was happy to be at home and enjoy life. Unfortunately, after 9 months of follow-up tests, something appeared to be wrong with his bone marrow. It turned out that Vadim developed secondary chronic myeloproliferative disease, caused by chemotherapy. The only treatment for this condition is bone marrow transplantation from a donor, and it is not done in his home country.  Vadim's chance to live is very expensive. His family received a bill from a hospital in Italy for bone marrow transplantation for 120,000 euros. For Vadim's family, it is a lifetime of earnings.

We receive requests for help with stories like Vadim's every week, from many countries of the former Soviet Union.  This project helps us contribute to these families' fundraising efforts and allow them beat seemingly impossible odds. On Wednesday, May 13th you can help us earn more and support more patients by donating during Bonus Day.  Between 09:00:01 EDT and 23:59:59 EDT (or between 16:00 Wednesday and 7:00 Thursday Moscow time) all donations of $1,000 or less will receive a bonus from GlobalGiving.  The exact percentage of the bonus will be determined after the Bonus Day, based on total amount raised.

Thanks again for your kindness and support! 

In December we shared great news with you:  we have received a very generous donation from VMWare Foundation, which had allowed us to support several families seeking help to bring their children abroad for cancer treatment.  The donation also brought us close to achieving our project goal of $25,000. 

However, recently we have experienced an increase in the number of requests from families from Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.  Cancer care in these countries continues to lag behind that of developed countries.  For this reason, we have decided to increase our project goal to $50,000.  We hope to be able to provide support to as many families as we can.  Our criteria for patient support remains the same:  the families have to be low income, have no insurance, and the children have to lack treatment options in their own countries. 

One of such little patients who currently needs help is two-year-old Michail.  He was born in a young family in Odessa, Ukraine. Since birth, he has been very healthy and happy boy.  But in fall of 2014 he developed a toothache, and the dentist had to take his tooth out. Beneath it, a tumor was found. At first, it appeared to be benign, but the Ukrainian doctors were unsure of the diagnosis. As Misha's condition deteriorated, his parents decided to take him to Israel for urgent evaluation. There Misha was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma, a type of childhood cancer, with metastases in his lower jaw.   Misha had to start urgent treatment. He has already completed chemotherapy, but will also need transplant of his own stem cells, surgery on his jaw, and immunotherapy. Misha is responding well to therapy and there is hope for recovery. However, the costs of treatment are very high, and Misha's family is trying hard to raise funds for their only son.

We will be very grateful for your continuing support of our project!  Thank you for staying with us.