Life-Saving Treatment for Kids in Ukraine

Dear friends,

thank you for supporting Ukrainian kids with cancer.  

A 10-year old girl you see in the pictures is hospitalized at the Institute of Cancer in Kyiv. Her name is Natasha and she comes from Kryvyi Rikh. When you get acquainted with the girl the first thing you notice are her beautiful and sincere eyes. You can imagine this girl dancing with a nice guy, her prince. But unfortunately it is impossible. She has a tumor in the leg: osteosarcoma.

Natasha has been receiving chemotherapy for a long time. It is required to kill cancer cells and to prevent them from spreading throughout her body. The girl’s mother stays always with her. She left two other children at home because her daughter needed her care and her support more at the moment. Still her kids miss her very much.  

Natasha’s family is low-income. They live in a small village where there is no employment, so they have to earn their living selling some orchard products and some eggs they get from their hens.  The family doesn’t have any savings to pay for treatment, the mother doesn’t work because of her daughter disease and what the father earns is enough only to maintain himself and two kids left with him at home.

Thanks to your donations we provided Natasha with necessary medicines and medical consumables that are not available at the department. Now the situation is critical in Ukraine, worse than before. Because of economic crisis, currency devaluation, war in the East the state provides only a limited quantity of the most essential drugs like chemotherapy and all the rest the parents have to buy.

Unfortunately, all the doctors’ efforts to save Natasha’s leg were vain. It has to be amputated, so that the girl could live. The psychologist from Zaporuka service at the department supports the girl, prepares her for such an important surgery and encourages fighting against the disease with all her strength.  After the surgery she will need physical rehabilitation that is also provided by Zaporuka.

Natasha’s dream was to have a tablet, a simple one that she could use during those long hours in bed on a drip. For most people it is a common thing to have a tablet but for a big family from little Ukrainian village it is a luxury they cannot afford. One of the volunteers coming to the hospital asked Natasha about her dream and thanks to her post in Facebook people made this dream come true.

Natasha will need a long treatment and rehabilitation but she is not alone with her disease. Thanks to your donations and your support Zaporuka can continue helping her family and many other families like hers.

Links:

• More about Zaporuka activities