I run to pay for hours of life. Oleg Tarasenko

“My name is Oleg Tarasenko and I’m 31 years old. I work as a senior strategic lawyer at “The Right to Protection” Charity Fund under the project that protects the rights of the internally displaced persons and the persons affected by the military conflict in the Eastern Ukraine. I liked running sprint races at school, but I stopped doing that over the years.

I noticed this year that many of my lawyer colleagues, besides putting in the work hours, manage to do sport as well, in particular, running. So I resumed my running recently: by doing sport you, first of all, gain the victory over your own self. When I found out about the Marathon, I decided to give it a try and run a 10 km distance.

Why do I do this with “Open Palms” Charity Fund? Charity is a multi-faceted activity, each of its facets being vital and crucial, but in this particular case the very thought that it’s in my power to gift one more day of life to a terminally ill person really shook me. So often we waste hours, days of our lives, taking them for granted, and thinking we have a lot of them ahead of us… But there are people out there who value every single day, and I want to give them as many of those days as possible. I hope this strikes a chord with you as well and you’ll support me in this.”

We thank Oleg for his trust and support and we ask you to help him reach his goal sooner. Oleg will be running with us in order to pay for 140 hours of life for the Lviv resident Oksana Smal. Two years ago Oksana was diagnosed with stage 4 of kidney cancer which later had been confirmed as terminal – the doctors haven’t been able to gain the complete victory over the disease. However, they’ve been able to identify medicines which keep her cancer in check and prevent it from progressing. As long as Oksana takes the ‘magic’ pills, she stays alive and feels OK. However, even the shortest break in the medicines’ administration makes her feel worse, so the treatment can’t be interrupted. It is extremely expensive for the family to be able to handle it on their own, so we have joined our efforts to make the impossible things possible. And, together, to shield Oksana from cancer and gift her hours of living.