Let's Help More Than 100 Children with Cancer

Today is the day when we want to say a huge thank you for believing in the little patient and his step into tomorrow. Today is the day when we want to bow for your support to “Rugute's“ ambition to be with doctors and ensure the most adavnced treatment for children with oncological illnesses, to conduct the necessary diagnostic and genetic testing which are not conducted in Lithuania, to provide the needed charity for families and a cozy home-like environment for temporary stay in order to spend time with one‘s family at “Rugute's home“.

Lately, while filling various reports, we are more and more surprised and thankful from our hearts for supporting the “Rugute“ Foundation. It was only together that we could raise:

•  7 748,38 Eur for medicine and nursing supplies;
•  3 574,35 Eur for central vein catheters (20 units);
• 2 515,59 Eur for needles used for central vein catheters (630 units);
• 738,58 Eur for special infusion systems (60 units) and connectors (200 units);
• 2 178,87 Eur for oral care products: Caphosol® (9 units) and GUM® AftaClear (184 units);
• 4 269,00 Eur for buying an arms and legs trainer for D. I.;
• 1 610,00 Eur for paying for behind-the-ear hearing aid for R. B.;
• 176,60 Eur for MIC-KEY skin level gastronomy tube (1 unit);
• 3 025,00 Eur for genetic OncoDEEP & TRACE test conduct;
• 11 536,91 Eur of charity for A. R.‘s first surgery, two trips, accommodation, meals and other expenses endured during the planned surgery at Gdansk University Clinical Hospital‘s Centre of Children‘s Surgery and Urology;
• 36 000,00 Eur support for O.V.‘s treatment in the hospital of Köln;
•  2 013,37 Eur for T. Z.‘s trip to Turkey;
•  12 110,00 Eur support for basic needs of families;
•  1 800,00 Eur support for Lithuanian Society of Pediatric Onco-hematologists;
•  753,06 Eur for buying supplies for Children‘s Hospital, Affiliate of Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos, renewal of psychology rooms;
• 30 000,00 Eur support for Vilnius Chindren‘s Hospital‘s Center for Pediatric Oncology and Hematology for the renovation of patient rooms.

During the first eight months of 2019 the total amount of 120 049,71 Eur was meaningfully spent. We did not include the expenses of: minor supplies for hospital‘s play rooms, supplies for aquarium care, gifts for children, “Rugute's home“ maitenance and realization of other international cooperation projects.

Thank you for being with “Rugute“ Foundation. Thank you for giving sails and favorable wind to children, who are using their endless will and effort to row through the vast and treacherous ocean of illness.

We are certain that this support will help children to reach the safe coast with no hospital wards and procedure rooms as fast as possible and only the straight road to dream realization will lie ahead.

Report (March, April and May, 2019)

Evaluating the various support provided in the months of March, April and May of 2019, we are pleased to have contributed to the successful treatment of children along with the doctors who treat children’s oncological illnesses.

According to received requests from families of children with an oncological illnesses, the families received monthly or one-time charity, taking into account the importance of the need indicated in the request. The oncological illness of the child affects the financial situation of the family: there is a significant reduction in income, as one of the parents is staying in the hospital with the child and cannot work for a long period of time; in addition, there is also a significant increase in family’s expenses. Other family members are trying to spend as much time as they can with the seriously ill child, and therefore, in cases where the family lives far away from the city where the hospital is located, a lot of money is spent on travel expenses. The Fund provided families with 6,200 Eur for their needs and 3,470 Eur by buying food and nursing equipment.

The Fund provided support A.R. 3,000 Eur for the surgery at Department of Surgery and Urology, for Children and Adolescents, Medical University of Gdansk.

During the months of March, April and May of 2019, the Fund has faced the growing need for medication. Doctors are more and more confident in prescribing advanced, up-to-date treatment protocols that are not State-covered or not supplied in Lithuania at all, but are known for the success in treatment of children in other countries. In order to help the patient A.R., the Fund bought the Temozolomide 100 mg and HYCAMTIN 4 mg and Puri-Nethol 50 mg for 4,430 Eur.

The Fund also purchased the most commonly used mouthwash solutions AftaClear and Caphosol for 1,451 Eur. These solutions help the little patients to get over the most common side effect of chemotherapy – mouth ulcerations that are known to worsen both physical and psychological condition of the sick child. Thanks to these solutions, children are able to eat without suffering too much pain.

Within the past three months Rugute purchased 2 professional blood pressure monitors that will ease the patient care and will allow the nurses to estimate the patients’ condition more precisely. Total cost – 624 Eur.

The Fund also purchased some infusion Cyto set (60 items) that are used to administer medications, physiological fluids and glucose solutions intravenously. We allocated 569 Eur to purchase these systems.

As we have mentioned many times before, it is not only physical treatment that matters, but also emotional and psychological health of the child. When a child is playing, he/she is able to forget the pain he/she has experienced during treatment and medical procedures. After asking of Vilnius Children's Hospital psychologists, we have bought particular things for treatment (1,226 Eur).

A few years ago our Fund contributed to the idea of one of father of a child with oncological disease: to install aquariums at the Children’s Clinic of LSMU (Kaunas University Clinics). The hospital environment causes stress to children and depresses their parents who spent day after day looking after their sick children. It is proven that stress can make treatment less effective. On the other hand, pleasant atmosphere is especially important to children who spent long months being hospitalized. The aquariums are known to create a calming and stress-reducing atmosphere. We allocated 89 Eur to renew the aquariums (to purchase new fish).

Rugute was also able to cover the maintenance costs of Rugute’s Home, the only facility in Lithuania that provides temporary shelter to the young cancer patients and their family members, free of charge. This facility is very important to the families that live far away from the hospital, and is especially appreciated by the young cancer patients for its cozy and playful home environment. The total maintenance cost of Rugute's Home in the months of March, April and May was 5,844 Eur.

Rugute has always helped to ensure that a certain type and amount of blood is always available to the children who need blood transfusions. On the 25^th of May, Fund Rugute and the public entity Nacionalinis kraujo centras organized the 22^th voluntary blood drive Share a Droplet, and invited everybody to donate blood for the sick children. 30 donors donated their blood in the cozy atmosphere of Rugute’s Home.

Every time we look back, we see the change in the lives of the children with oncological diseases, and we know that we would have not done all this without the help we received via GlobalGiving. Thanks to all of the kind people who donate money to our organization via GlobalGiving, more than a hundred families receive assistance in their uneasy fight with malignant diseases. Thank you for your contributions: they make the sick children’s lives better!