To hide Dima from cancer

Dima Zubkov is 8 years old, his diagnosis is T-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia and he needs bone marrow transplantation from an unrelated donor. Dima has been ailing since spring 2015 – very suddenly and very precipitously. The boy was immediately made the first protocol of treatment, he went through the chemotherapy, but unfortunately he came into remission very late – on the 52nd day. There is nothing left for doctors to do except to prescribe the boy a transplantation – his own bone marrow is not able to cope with aggressive disease.

Right now the boy is receiving simultaneously three blocks of the high-dose chemotherapy in order to prepare for transplantation. As such operations are not made in Ukraine, we will treat Dima in Italian clinic in Genoa. So we need to collect 125 thousand euros for this goal.

I have a hamster Krawly. And he began to do such things! He is building houses of the paper! – tells Dima with enthusiasm. He burrs a little, and because of it some words sound like with foreign accent. – You throw him a paper, he nibbles, nibbles – and the house is ready.

Dima sits with crossed legs on a hospital bed, the notebook lays before him. While his mother tells the TV reporter the history of Dima’s disease, the boy sits sideways to the camera in big headphones and doesn’t turn his eyes away from the screen. As if everything, that is told here, does not concern him. However, sometimes Dima suddenly rushes into conversation with the notes and then it becomes clear, that Dima only pretends, that he is very busy. Actually he doesn’t pass any word and knows very well everything about his illness.

He is very clever, he studies very well, but he is very reticent. Dima’s mother tells, that the boy is never seen without a notebook and a pad though he is very sociable and likes to play with other children. His father is a programmer, therefore all telephone conversations with the son are also connected with computers. Dima always changes the talks to computers.

He can be nervous that he is confained to the medicine dropper and cannot leave to take a walk, but after course of treatment he remains to sit with a notebook in his ward. Because in the world of games and the Internet it seems that illness is not present.

Dima became ill very sharply. Firstly he had a flu, he had ache in his bones, so the boy was made necessary blood tests, and after them a puncture. Analyses have shown a critically low level of leukocytes and 88% of blast (in simple words - cancer) cells. And everything began.

- The first month Dima cried very often and blamed me on his illness. He told that he would not be ill, if we have not made analyses.

Of course, Dima would become ill... And the virtual world will not protect the child from treatment and its consequences. Now the boy has received the second block of high-dose chemotherapy because of which his mouth and throat are affected by a stomatitis. He is not able to eat, has lost weight on 4 kg, lays under droppers and suffers from pain and high temperature.

It is not possible to hide from this pain anywhere. As it is not also possible to hide from a fatal cancer without donor’s bone marrow transplantation. Dima easily passes all levels of computer strategy, adroitly solves mathematical problems, but he is not able to conquer a cancer without our help. Let's help this little hero! On UBB we are going to raise a part of necessary funds.

Name: Dmytro O. Zubkov, born 05.07.2007

Location: Zaporizhzhia region

Diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leukemia, T-line option