Help Cancer Patients Pay for Travel Expenses!

During 2018 this project had helped 13 patients with the costs of travel, lodging and treatment abroad.  We shared several of the stories with you.  Some of the patients are children whose parents are desperate to give them access to modern care.  Others are adults who were told that nothing could be done for them in their home countries, yet promising treatments exist abroad.

One of these patients will be receiving our support again this year.  She continues to need our help and will be unable to afford treatment otherwise.  

Irina was born and grew up in Crimea. She had a gift for languages and became a teacher of English and Italian. After takeover of Crimea by Russia in 2014, Irina’s family fled to Kiev where they worked hard to rebuild their lives. Unfortunately, in late 2017 Irina was urgently hospitalized. The tests revealed colon cancer that resulted in complete blockage of her intestines and metastases in her liver. Irina was in a critical condition, and Ukrainian doctors only expected her to have 3 months to live.

Irina’s family decided to get a second opinion. They used their life savings to take Irina to Israel for treatment. There she underwent seven cycles of chemotherapy, and her disease retreated. However, Irina needs to continue her treatment to keep cancer at bay.  Every two months, she travels to Israel for chemotherapy, as medications she needs are not available in Ukraine.  Our support is vital, and she is very grateful to everyone whose help allowed her to continue accessing life-saving treatment. 

Thank you for supporting our project!  We hope to make more difference in lives of cancer patients like Irina this year.  

In the flurry of holiday season activities, it's a challenge to find time for strangers who need help.  But it is also the time that people in need crave the return to normalcy the most.  Cancer patients going through treatment hope to complete it as soon as possible and find a reason to celebrate.  Unfortunately, often times the lack of money gets in the way.  This is why this project supports patients traveling abroad to access modern treatment and helps alleviate financial burden of cancer.

Consider Kate's story.  She had recently turned 14. She comes from Sakhalin Island, in the Far East of Russia. In 2017, Kate had two vaccinations against papillomavirus. In October 2017, a month later after the second vaccination, she developed a painful swelling in the injection area, which had cleared by itself a few weeks later. The symptoms were mistaken for a side effect of the vaccine. However, the swelling reappeared in January 2018 accompanied by a burning pain.

The examination in Sakhalin clinics revealed a malignant tumor in Kate's left upper arm. The initial diagnosis also stated a possibility for arm amputation. After consulting doctors in Russia and Japan, Kate’s parents have decided to take their daughter to Israel. In February 2018, they arrived in Tel Aviv. There Kate has gone through a complete examination and received a final diagnosis – Ewing’s sarcoma of the left humerus.

Since March 2018, Kate has gone through all of the required chemotherapy, as well as complex surgery of the affected bone and replacement with an implant. It all went pretty well and Kate and her parents hope to finish the final evaluation and the last minor surgery by the end of the year and complete the treatment. Hopefully, they will soon be able to travel home and rejoin the rest of their family.  Kate's parents are both retired and have used all of their life savings to support their daughter’s treatment.  They are very grateful for help with their travel expenses. 

Would you like to help more patients like Kate?  Now is a great time to sign up for recurring donations and earn 100% bonus from Global Giving on your donation.  Until December 31, every monthly donation of up to $200 that is made for at least 4 months, will receive a match.  We hope to enjoy your continuing support and help more families during 2019!

Happy holiday season to you and have a happiest New Year!