37 UAH per hour of life

Oksana was given her diagnosis more than two years ago: kidney cancer, stage IV. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation – nothing worked. The illness kept progressing. Just a few months after her diagnosis, she had metastases to her lungs and to her spine, and was in pain. It looked like the end would come soon. But suddenly, cancer stopped progressing. The metastases shrunk, the pain diminished, and Oksana gained enough strength to live and to rejoice in being alive. The medications Votrient and Afinitor are the magic pills that have accomplished this miracle for Oksana and have been doing so for the third year in a row. But where can one get the money so as not to lose this thread of life?

One package of this life-saving medication costs 26,000 UAH. One package lasts a month. Which means that every four weeks, Oksana must search around the local pharmacies first, to find out if the medicine is available, and then to find the lowest available price and best discounts, and to be afraid that she wouldn't have enough money. Then relief when she manages to find the medication and to pay for it. An exhausting process of running in circles.

Meanwhile, two springs have come and gone. And Oksana was able to see the flowering gardens, which she never expected to be able to see again, just two years ago, and a second Easter, and a second summer – neither of which she would have been alive to see, if it weren't for... But thank God that such medications are available.

"I thank God for the fact that people who don't know me at all, who are total strangers to me, did not pass by me but stopped to help me in my time of need. It was specifically you and your foundation who gave me hope and the ability to trust that all will be well. God himself must have sent you to help me when I needed it the most," Oksana wrote to us when we send her one of the packages of the medication. When we read it, our eyes teared up... Today, we need to raise the funds for the next month of Oksana's life. Can you join us in this effort?

Earlier on UBB, we already collected money for Oksana's treatment. You can see the previous projects by clicking on the link.

Name: Smal Oksana, 24.12.1966

City: Lviv

Diagnosis: clear cell carcinoma of the right kidney with a secondary lesion of the skeleton and lungs