To breathe for her son’s sake

“Presently I am in serious condition, but I want to struggle for myself. I want to see my son grow, make his first steps and say his first words. I want to keep an eye on how he gets acquainted with the world and to help him in this. I want to be near him on ordinary and important days of his life and take him to school on his first school day…”

These were the words after which I got personally acquainted with Olena. I had sent questionnaires to patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), and there was a question among others, “What is your aim in life? Would you agree to suffer the exhausting illness and difficult treatment just to go on living?” Olena’s answer was short, “I am a happy mother of a baby son, and I am proud of having delivered a healthy child. Presently I am in serious condition, but…”

Patients with cystic fibrosis can live several decades, but the necessary condition is adequate therapy. In Ukraine, over 80% people with CF do not even reach adulthood, because they cannot get this therapy. And there are only a few young women who have grown up with this diagnosis and given birth to a child. Olena Tara is one of them. Presently she is 26, and her son is six months old.

In the autumn, Olena was to get a course of intensive antibiotic therapy. However, there was no money, and Olena’s condition quickly deteriorated. At the moment when she asked us for help, she could hardly speak.
Our foundation provided some money to Olena so that she could buy antibiotics for the intensive therapy course, a glucometer, vitamins, and special nutrition. All of this must help Olena overcome this exacerbation. However, to keep her in stable condition, yet another drug is needed: Pulmozyme (dornase alfa). Pulmozyme is one of the basic drugs in treatment for cystic fibrosis, which is used throughout the world in everyday treatment of all CF patients, from the moment of diagnosis to the end of the life. It has no analogs with a comparable efficiency. Pulmozyme makes sputum thinner and thus provides the possibility to cough it out; as a result, the patient’s breath is not obstructed. This drug not only helps cope with the dyspnea but also significantly increases the lifespan. One pack of Pulmozyme, which is sufficient for 6 days, costs 2068 hrn (about $250). The aim of this fundraising is to buy 20 packs for 120 days of treatment. However, Olena will also need further help.

Let us raise 41 360 hryvnias to give normal breath to Olena and prolong her happy motherhood!

Name: Olena Tara, b. 1987
City: Uzhgorod
Diagnosis: Cystic fibrosis with pancreatic insufficiency. Lung hypertension stage 1. Cholestatic hepatitis. Impaired glucose tolerance.