By Marina | Project Leader
Tolegen is 8 years old. In his native Kazakhstan, Tolegen was a thriving 2nd grader who loved reading and playing with Legos when he fell and injured his head in March 2023. Instead of improving, a few days later he began vomiting and feeling dizzy. When taken to a doctor, he was initially treated for poisoning, but continued getting worse rapidly.
An MRI scan showed that Tolegen had a brain tumor. Locally, the doctors believed that he had time to wait and added him to the surgery waiting list. However, Tolegen's mom obtained a second opionion from the neurosurgeons in Turkey who believed the tumor to be very aggressive and insisted on the urgent operation. They were right - the tumor grew 50% in the span of a week, and Tolegen lost ability to walk.
Tolegen's family brought him to Turkey where the surgery took place in April. Due to a difficult to reach location of the tumor, only part of the tumor could be removed safely. The testing revealed that Tolegen suffered from diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), an aggressive and very rare type of childhood cancer that forms in the brainstem. Tolegen had to undergo standard radiation therapy and chemotherapy to try to prevent the tumor regrowth, and based on the genetic testing of the tumor sample, he was also recommended a treatment with a targeted medication.
Thanks to your support of the project, we were able to help Tolegen's mom obtain this medication in a pharmacy in Germany. As a single mom who also has another young child, she is deeply grateful to everyone whose help allowed Tolegen access this treatment. While he still has a difficult battle ahead, your support gave his family the time to reach out to the clinics in the United States where this rare tumor has been better studied.
We really appreciate your support for patients like Tolegen and hope you continue to make a difference in their lives!
By Marina | Project Leader
By Marina | Project Leader
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
