Help Ana to help the children!

Oncological diagnosis decided to adjust Anya Melnik's plans. Anya loves animals, is studying at a university, she is going to become a speech therapist and help children. Anya always loved to communicate with children, look for an approach to them, chat and play with them. Therefore, when entering the university, I chose the specialty of a speech therapist. I diligently comprehend the intricacies of the profession and this spring was supposed to finish the second course.

Everything collapsed in one day. Sudden fainting, MRI and diagnosis: brain tumor. Examination at the Regional Hospital named after Mechnikov showed metastases. At the Kiev Institute of Neurosurgery. Romodanov underwent a complex operation to remove metastasis in the right frontal lobe of the brain. After histology, the diagnosis was clarified: metastases of anonymous melanoma to the lungs and brain.

After that, the parents consulted the National Cancer Institute. An experienced doctor prescribed immunotherapy treatment with Kitruda. The cost of one injection (once every 3 weeks) is UAH 116,000. To find funds for the first introductions, all relatives, friends, hundreds of acquaintances and strangers were involved. But after the first months of using the medication and the planned MRI, the doctors concluded that Kitruda was not working and the therapy had to be changed.

Now Anya has been prescribed targeted drugs Tafinlar and Mekinist. The cost of 1 package of any of these drugs is UAH 38,000 – 40,000. We need both at the same time, that is, it takes about UAH 80,000 per month. The search for funds for treatment keeps parents in great stress, but it is even more terrible to put up with the diagnosis and give up. 

"We applied to different funds", says my mother in a voice ringing with tears, "but nowhere do we pass by the criteria. I know that Anya is an adult according to her documents, but for me she is a child. Gentle, affectionate, benevolent - I don't know why this should have happened to her...".

Anya is 19 years old, which is why she "does not pass the criteria". But she wants to live in the same way as kids and teenagers. She has no grandiose plans for the coming years, but these plans definitely include studying, working with children and helping animals. And together with Anya, her parents and an older brother who serves in the ATO, we appeal to you: please, help Anya live on! Together we can definitely do it!