Let's Help More Than 100 Children with Cancer

Report (September, October and November of 2018)

During the months of September, October and November of 2018, Rugute continued its activities and provided various support to children with oncological diseases and families who raise them. Fund also supported the major medical centers where these children are treated.

Within the past three months, the Fundprovided monthly and non-recurring charity to the families who had submitted their requests based on the importance of their needs. Families used this money to purchase necessary medical care and food supplies and to cover other costs that they could not have avoided due to their child’s disease (for example, travelling costs). The money also helped the families to improve the psychological well-being of the children. Fund provided 11,677.03 Eur in monetary form and 2,442.4 Eur worth of food products to such families.

The Fund also purchased the most commonly used mouthwash solution GUM® AftaClear, Caphosol for 2,025.06 Eur. This solution helps 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.

The Fund has donated 2,000.00 Eur to the Lithuanian Children's oncology and Haematology Therapists Fellowship.

The Fund paid 12,100.00 Eur for genetic screening of 3 children. The genetic screening and testing of young cancer patients in one of the most modern laboratories of Europe, is a continued project, launched by the Fund in 2015. It‘s aim is to help Lithuanian doctors to detect the hystology of the tumor, to foresee the progress of the disease and to individualize the treatment.

Fund bought some supplies and covered some other necessary costs of Children‘s Oncohaematology Center of Santara Clinics (Children‘s Hospital):

• air conditioners (2 units) for procedure rooms – 3,650.00 Eur;
• equipment for children psychologist office – 240.00 Eur;
• toys for children play rooms – 324,91 Eur;

In order for the sick children’s bodies and souls to get better, it is crucial to provide them with both active and passive recreation, new experiences, joyful adventures and new friends. Back in 2015, we received an invitation from Jurga and Fredrik Gotlund, who offered us to implement a project Rehabilitation and Recreation of Childhood Cancer Patients together, by bringing our children to Mallorca, Spain, for a week of vacation. On the 22-29^rd of September, 2018, nine children who had oncological diseases, and their family members, enjoyed warm Mediterranean seawater and impressive nature of Mallorca. This rehabilitation gave them lots of benefits for their emotional and physical well-being. The total cost of this trip, including airfare, insurance, catering and visiting places of interest, was 7,297.93 Eur.

For the past three months, Rugute was also covering the maintenance costs of Rugute’s Home, the rented premises (200 m²) with two bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a cozy area for games, resting and meetings, and a small yard, not far from the Vilnius Children’s Hospital. It is the only facility in Lithuania that provides temporary accommodation to the young cancer patients and their family members, free of charge. Having found shelter in these premises, children with oncological diseases are able to have a break from their treatment and from being in the hospital. Rugute’s Home allows their family members to get a temporary accommodation while visiting children in the hospital. The total maintenance cost of Rugute's Home in September, October and November of 2018 was 5,562.81 Eur.

A few years back, our Fund contributed to the project by Eugenijus Maciukas (a dad of a little patient), which involved setting up fish tanks in the hallways of Children’s Disease Clinic of LSMU. The hospital environment may be quite stressful to children (who spend long months in there) and depressing to their parents, therefore it is important to create a peaceful and emotionally rewarding environment. We helped to renew the aquariums and allocated 43.80Eur for this particular project.

On the 1th of December, Fund Rugute  and Nacionalinis kraujo centras invited everybody to the voluntary blood drive Share a Droplet, which was a nice event to commemorate the 14^th birthday of Rugute. It is a wonderful and positive blood donation campaign, where one can give some sincere attention to a sick human being and to save his/her life in an easy and rewarding way.

Christmas is right on our doorstep and we are sitting down to take a look at what we have done, and what we wouldn’t have done without your help. THANK YOU. May the Christmas Spirit prevail in your hearts and homes. May you be always well and healthy.

Links:

• http://www.rugute.lt/en/

Report (June, July and August of 2018)

We are thankful for the support we have received and we are very happy that with the unity and backing from everyone we were able to help children who are in treatment receive needed medicine, have research done or just have the opportunity to enjoy warm summer holidays.

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 9.600,00 Eur for their needs and 2.495,57 Eur by buying food and nursing equipment.

During the months of June, July and August of 2018 The Fund faced a growing need of medicine once again. Attempting to help U. T., The Fund purchased medicine called Temozolomide 100g for which 622,88 Eur were paid. Also, medicine called Puri-Nethol 50g was bought to A. R. for 250,14 Eur.

The Fund helped the family of K., in order for their son to receive additional treatment with dendritic cells next to the main treatment. For the production of dendritic cells vaccine The Fund paid 4.000,00 Eur.

Summer is the time for holidays. In order to help two boys who are under The Fund‘s care to have a trip to the seaside and enjoy summer‘s pleasures, The Fund provided K. V. and D. A a financial support of 1476,00 Eur.

For the past nine years, the Fund has been ensuring that, in case of need, children with oncological illnesses have a long-term central vein catheters inserted, which significantly improves the psychological well-being of young patients during the treatment and prevents pain and multiple intravenous peritoneal catheter insertions. During these past few months, 8 units of long-term central vein catheters, and 300 units of suitable needles for these catheters were bought for 2.847,67 Eur.

The Fund also purchased 3 bottles of special mouthwash solution Caphosol for 278,02 Eur. This solution will help children to get over the most common side effect of chemotherapy – mouth ulcerations that are known to worsen both physical and psychological condition of the young cancer patients. With this solution, children will be able to eat and will suffer less pain.

The fund also is continuing the project of Rugute’s Home. It is rented premises (200 m2) located near the Vilnius Children’s Hospital, with a small yard, two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, a cosy area for games, resting and meetings. The aim of this project is to provide a temporary, free of charge accommodation to the children with cancer and their family members. Having found shelter in these premises, children with oncological diseases are able to have a break from their treatment and from being in the hospital. Also, Rugute’s Home allows their family members to get a temporary accommodation while visiting children in the hospital and spend a day or few with a child. The total maintenance cost of Rugute's Home in the months of June, July and August was 4.784,95 Eur.

A few years back, our Fund contributed to the project by Eugenijus Maciukas (a dad of a little patient), which involved setting up fish tanks in the hallways of Children’s Disease Clinic of LSMU. The hospital environment may be quite stressful to children (who spend long months in there) and depressing to their parents, therefore it is important to create a peaceful and emotionally rewarding environment. We helped to renew the aquariums and allocated 204,91 Eur for this particular project.

14 children of Lithuania, who have overcome an oncological illness, participated in the sports games called ,,Onco-Olympics“ in Warsaw on August 24-26 of 2018. Children from Lithuania had the opportunity to challenge themselves while competing with children from Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine, Turkey, and Poland. Here are Emilija‘s impressions about the trip to Poland: „It was my second Onco-Olympics. I was waiting for it with excitement. Positive emotions flooded me while walking in the stadium with the Lithuanian team. It wasn‘t easy to participate in the sports challenges but the cheering audience was the best. The biggest joy was to win the bronze medal. It was also fun to meet good old friends and find some new ones. Thank you for the ability to be a part of it!“. The expenses of participating in the „Onco-Olympics 2018“ were 4512,23 Eur.

Thank you for the warmth and support for childen, fighting for their lives.