One day of Marina's life

They say that every human life is priceless – it cannot be bought! But Maryna knows how much the day of her life costs – 253 UAH. An 18-year-old girl is one of 10 per 1 million people of our planet with such a rare diagnosis of stomach cancer when a person can live only if he/she every day throughout their lives takes an expensive chemotherapy Glivec.

“If I have money my child lives, if I don’t then she can die because her mother is a school teacher with a salary of eight days of her life”. Maryna and her mother believe that the salvation is in the hands of good people which are much more numerous than indifferent ones.

When she was an 11-year old girl Maryna fell ill, she was very weak and complained of stomach ache. She had been gastritis for 9 months until she was hospitalized at the local intensive care ward. The mother brought her daughter who was in a grave condition to Kyiv, to Okhmatdyt hospital where she was diagnosed with a terrible disease of stomach cancer. Maryna spent many months at the Institute of Cancer where she underwent a lot of chemotherapy cycles and a very complicated surgery. The treatment was successful and the family returned to the village in the Crimea where Maryna lived a normal life with school, friends, and childhood joys. Annual checkups confirmed that the girl was healthy. After 5 years of survival it is considered that the risk of this disease is that of an ordinary person. Maryna enters the University to study psychology because she wants to help children affected by cancer and their families because 7 years ago she passed all the way of fighting this terrible disease. Besides, Maryna attends the courses of journalism as this area has always interested her too.

Approximately a year ago the regular checkup in Kyiv revealed a spot in Maryna’s liver. During the year the dynamics of the tumor was observed and just before the New Year’s Eve the doctors communicated a terrible diagnosis: malignant tumor of the stomach. The diagnosis is very rare; there are only 10-20 cases per 1 million people. Maryna has to take daily the chemotherapy Glivec which will allow her to live. The cost of pills for a year is 91 212 UAH. If the girl stops taking medication an aggressive disease will progress and her life will stop.

Unfortunately, the state does not provide patients with such a diagnosis with essential medicines. Still Maryna doesn’t give up.

We ask good people to help Maryna. It is necessary to purchase the chemotherapy Glivec for a year, so that the girl lived without a fear that after a few weeks her life will come to an end. Maryna: “I want to live!”

Name: Konchakovska Maryna Oleksandrivna, date of birth 14.03.1995

City: Simferopol

Diagnosis: GIST – Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor