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!  

When little Galymzhan was just 4 months old, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).  He was the youngest patient in the Children's hospital in his native Kazakhstan.  His family was told that since Galymzhan's immune system is still developing, it would be very difficult to treat him.  Still, Galymzhan endured six months of treatment and two cycles of chemotherapy.  But then a relapse of leukemia occurred.  Locally, the doctors offered only very harsh chemotherapy that by itself could be fatal for a small child like Galymzhan.  With cancer cell counts growing rapidly, his family searched the world for the hospital that would admit him for better treatment.   

Galymzhan's parents found a hospital in Turkey that specializes in ALL treatment on a recommendation from a friend, and went there with only $4,000 on hand.  The rest of the money for treatment was raised from their friends, family and the local community.  Now Galymzhan needs bone marrow transplant from a donor to help ensure lasting remission.   Kazakhstan does not offer it to very young children like Galymzhan, so the plan is to stay in Turkey for the procedure.  Luckily, Galymzhan's sister matched as a donor and will soon travel to Turkey from Kazakhstan where she currently lives with the other 2 siblings and the grandparents. 

Galymzhan's family is still raising money for the transplantation, and they were very grateful for our contribution.  In turn, we are grateful to YOU for your support of our project and kids like Galymzhan!    The families dealing with cancer are facing multiple challenges and financial support is an important way to alleviate their burden.  If you would like to help more families, please support us next week, starting Tuesday, March 25th!  All eligible donations up to $50 per unique donor per organization will be matched at 50% while matching funds remain.  Your support will be very much appreciated!