Help Cancer Patients Find Bone Marrow Donors!

As 2017 is coming to an end, we are looking back to see what we had accomplished.  During the year this project had supported seven blood cancer patients who could not afford the search for an unrelated bone marrow donor.  Thanks to your help, we were able to contribute $30,000 to allow these patients to undergo bone marrow transplants and get another chance for cure. 

While there continues to be a number of patients who need our support with paying the bills from foreign bone marrow donor registries, some of them needs our help more than others.  For example, Natasha comes from Kunashir, one of Kuril islands in Russia's Far East.  She is a single mom of her 5-year old son Artem.  A year ago, she started developing bruises on her body, turned pale, began having headaches and became fatigued.  A blood test showed that her blood counts plummeted and Natasha was hospitalized in Hematology unit.  In February she traveled across the country to Moscow for a consultation and was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia.   The treatment for this disorder is bone marrow transplant, so Natasha was referred to St. Petersburg's Gorbacheva Institute to begin tests and start a donor search.  Unfortunately, Natasha's sister was not a good match, and she had to look for an unrelated donor.  Most times, a registry in Germany finds matching donors, but because of Natasha's rare genotype, a donor was located only in the US, and the costs were twice as high. I hope you can contribute to our effort to help Natasha get well so she can be reunited  with her little son soon. 

Thank you so much for your support for our project this year.  Have a great New Year ahead filled with joy and happiness!

Alexander is a young man from Moscow, a lawyer by training and an investigator by profession.  Three years ago he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and was hospitalized immediately.  After five cycles of chemotherapy it was necessary for him to undergo bone marrow transplantation.  Although his brother was not a fully matching donor, there were no better matches anywhere in the world.  Transplantation took place in May 2015. 

A few months later, Alexander had a relapse.  Additional therapy was administered, and while it succedded in inducing remission, it also caused severe graft versus host disease - a reaction of Alexander's own cells to presence of donor's cells.  Alexander's stomach, liver and digestive tract were affected.  Later, the disease involved his lungs, and he was put on a ventilator for a time.  Gradually, some issues resolved, but Alexander's liver continued to cause concerns to his doctors.  A new medication still undergoing clinical trials was proposed as off-label treatment.  Fortunately, it worked well for Alexander and he experienced significant improvement.  We are hopeful that he will soon overcome the last hurdles in his path to complete recovery. 

Thanks to your donations, we were recently able to buy medication that helped Alexander.  Stem cell transplants are still very risky procedures, and some patients require years to deal with after-effects of treatment.  Supporting them all the way is very important to ensure eventual success.

Thanks again for your care and support!  You help us continue to save more lives, and we treasure your trust in us.

Wishing you a most joyous holiday season!