HAS ONLY ONE CHANCE TO DEFEAT CANCER.
Elena urgently (in the next 2-3 months) needs a bone marrow transplant from a non-relative donor. Her and her mother, a school teacher, have been left to face this awful problem alone. Students who fall into difficulty are far from being children, but they are still not fully grownups. They do not fit into the programmes of charitable funds, whilst it is embarrassing for them to compete with small children and their heart-rending stories. All the family’s savings have been spent on the many courses of chemotherapy, rehabilitation and expensive medical cures. Where is there left to get money from? We can now only ask for donations from those around us.
In March 2010, Elena suffered a relapse. Remission in such a case does not last long at all and it is now vital that we perform a transplant during this period. If we are fortunate, the timeframe will not be so rigid, but this is solely in God’s hands.
We are considering all the options. It is common knowledge that one of the best clinics in the world for the treatment of leukaemia is the Oncology Center in Seattle (USA). They have access there to all of the world’s registers of bone marrow donors, use the most progressive methods and this is where the best doctors in the world are consultants, study and gain work experience. We are in close contact with specialists from Seattle, as well as with those from other countries and towns, including St Petersburg. How things will turn out, no one can foretell.
Our main problem is the search for a donor. Russia does not have its own database. We therefore have to pay a lot of money to international foundations. On the Stephan Morsh Register (Germany) there are only 3 potential donors for Elena. The doctors in Seattle told us that they can immediately activate the 17 potential donors they know of, 6 of whom live in America and who, according to US legislation, can only participate in a transplant on American soil. Elena possesses a rare genome, as a result of which there is such a lack of potential donors.
If we are unable to find an ideal (100% suitable) donor, additional risks will arise. Exceptional conditions will be required: experience of conducting the pre and post operation period, the availability of expensive medicines, sterile conditions and special equipment. The graft takes more than 100 days, during which time anything might happen. Quite a lot of complications are expected. In the Seattle clinic the survival rate of patients with acute leukaemia is the highest in the world. The best chance of winning this fight is there and for Elena it is the only chance!
Our goal is now to collect the funds for a possible transplant in Seattle. It is a huge sum, which we could not achieve on our own. But people are already helping us out of the goodness of their heart. Those with whom we have been lucky enough to correspond have told us that the most important thing for them is saving Elena and that their participation is not only dependent on the hospital bills.
We are trying to be as transparent as possible and can saythat we are prepared to work with any organisation (first and foremost with charitable funds) so that, if the collected funds for some reason go unused, Elena will consider it an honour to transfer them to the charitable ventures of these organisations.
We need help. We are willing to accept it in all its forms from anyone and any organisation. We are being supported by lots of media. Tax benefits can be accredited via our partner, the Advita Fund USA.
We cannot express how highly we value all the help and support that we are receiving from kind-hearted people.