AUGUST 2023

Dear friends, have a good and healthy summer!
Thanks to everyone who helps!
Last month, we have helped to pay the accommodation during the treatment for the Sherstoboev family, where two members, a son and a father, suffer from cancer.

This month, our help is awaited by:

MIRON AGAPOV, 11 m.o., Moscow, Russia.
Diagnosis: binocular retinoblastoma (retina cancer in both eyes).
Almost from the birth date, the baby has been diagnosed and treated. The parents have considered all possible way of dealing with this aggressive disease. They have found Jules Gonin ophthalmological clinic in Switzerland, where Professor Munir, a specialist in retinoblastoma, is practising. The clinic accepts Miron for the treatment. At the moment, Miron can see with the right eye, while in the left eye only the peripheral vision is preserved. Each eye will be treated locally: with laser, cryofreeze, and chemotherapy. The treatment must be continued, as well as the monitoring of the condition of both eyes for possible relapses. Only the father of the family is employed, and they are not able to pay the bills on their own. A part of the funds for Miron’s treatment is provided by a German charity fund. The family still needs to raise EUR 60,500.

The letter from Larisa Sanyukevich, director of the Center for Assistance to Children with Disabilities and Their Families in Grodno, Belarus.
“Greetings to you all. Our social and charitable institution “Ruka pomoschi” has been operating since 2017. We provide assistance to families raising children with disabilities. Our assistance includes distributing food, hygiene and cosmetics products, organizing holidays, and help in attending various concerts, performances, events by the whole family. About 100 families are under the care of the institution. For such families, the help and communication with each other is very important. This gives the families confidence and the feeling that they are not left alone with their trouble.

We would like to continue to support such families. However, at the moment we cannot pay the utility bills for our premises. To cut the expenses, I, as the director of the institution, work for free. Due to the sanctions and the situation in the world, our charitable accounts are practically not replenished. The enterprises and companies cannot help us financially. Their help comes in the form of the commodities they produce themselves. We distribute these commodities to the families. But the financial support is practically absent. Most of the help comes from ordinary people. In this regard, I kindly ask you to help our institution and provide financial assistance so that we are not evicted for non-payment of the utility bills, and can continue to support families. Thanks to those who will respond.”
The debt of the Center is currently about EUR 500. During the winter months, they will also need an assistance of about EUR 200 per month.

STEPAN ZHEGIN, 16 y. o., Russia.
Diagnosis: CHD, Ebstein’s anomaly, tricuspid valve insufficiency, paroxysmal flutter and atrial fibrillation.
Since the birth, Stepan has been diagnosed with a severe form of heart disease. The boy followed a difficult path of treatment and operations. When he was 7 years old, an American cardiac surgeon performed an operation to reconstruct the valve. The operation went great, and Stepan was able to live a full life. Stepan was absolutely healthy for 7 years. However, during the pandemic, the boy has got ill twice with a coronavirus infection, as a result of this he again began to have the problems with the heart rhythm. The medication failed to relieve the seizures, so an operation was performed. Unfortunately, it did not bring the desired result. The local doctors can only offer a medication treatment with strong heart drugs at the moment, that has strong side effects: worsening of the liver, worsening of the valve and an increase in heart failure. The family has turned again to an American professor of arrhythmology: Pedro Del Nido of Boston Children’s Hospital. He is ready to carry out the necessary operation of cryoablation, which cannot be done in Russia. With this operation, the boy would be able to return to the normal life. Stepan attends a mathematical school, this year he is taking exams: Russian, mathematics, physics and chemistry. He is fond of chess and football, which he cannot go for now for health reasons. Stepan follows a difficult life path, but he never complains. He is a smart and kind boy, he dreams of becoming a heart surgeon to help sick children with congenital heart disease. The cost of the necessary procedure is $200,000. It remains to collect about EUR 7,500 for the operation and for the family’s accommodation during the treatment.

HURRY TO DO GOOD!
I wish health to you all! Take care of yourself and your loved ones!
I embrace you heartily,
Yours Alina Titova