Help Cancer Patients Find Bone Marrow Donors!

Anelya is 14 years old.  The story of her illness began in November 2022. She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, the most fatal type of leukemia.  She immediately started treatment at the Center for Motherhood and Childhood in Astana, Kazakhstan.  The intensive chemotherapy treatment lasted from November 2022 to April 2023.  It was challenging for Anelya, and although she initially went into remission during supportive chemotherapy, a relapse occurred at the end of July 2023, with a severe blood infection accompanying it. 

Anelya was given a poor prognosis by her doctors, and in search of medical options, Anelya's parents decided on ASAN Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea. After confirming the diagnosis through tests, it was determined that a bone marrow transplantation was necessary. Although a matching donor could not be found in Korea, fortunately, one was located in Turkey. In early August, Anelya underwent the first two cycles of chemotherapy in Korea.

Next, the family flew to Medipol Mega University Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, to begin preparing for bone marrow transplantation. By then, the medical expenses for Anelya's treatment ballooned to $161,000, of which they spent $55,000 in Korea. The family was forced to sell their apartment in Kazakhstan to raise funds.  Thanks to you, we were able to offer help to Anelya's family in their efforts to afford the treatment for Anelya.  We are so grateful for your contribution that made it possible!

As the holiday season approaches, please keep in mind the patients fighting cancer over many months and years.  They need our help continuously, as cancer attacks indiscriminately at the most inconvenient times and during difficult periods.  The best way to help with that is to sign up for the monthly donations.  Thanks again for all you do!

Vitalia is a 42-year old mom from Kazan, Russia. In March 2022 she began feeling slightly unwell, but instead of recovering, she progressed to severe fatigue.  One day she could not gather the strength to get out of bed.  After getting hospitalized, in April 2022 she was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, refractory anemia with excess blasts, myelodysplastic syndrome.  If left untreated, it could develop into leukemia.  

Right away, Vitalia was told that the treatment will be long and involve a bone marrow transplant.  Unfortunately, her family members did not match as donors, and no donors were found in the Russian registries.  A donor search abroad is not covered by Russian state-administered insurance, and therefore, the patient is responsible for paying the full cost.  Although Vitalia's famiily was able to make an initial deposit, they could not afford to pay the remaining amount. Thanks to your support, we were able to help Vitalia with settling the bill.  Since then, she has had a successful transplant of donor's stem cell and is now recovering. 

Vitalia spent almost 20 years in travel industry and she is looking forward to returning to her profession and helping people discover new cultures and learn about history.  Thank you for your kindness, and we hope you will continue your support!

In our last report we told you about Savva, a young doctor from Siberia who has been battling Hodgkin's lymphoma since 2017. Since then, he has been able to find a clinic in Barcelona that offered to accept him for CAR T-cell treatment.  Thanks to your support, Savva will be able to travel for treatment in early March and get another chance to beat cancer.

We are also continuing to work with Advita Fund in St. Peterburg.  Although they are frequently able to find donors in the Russian registries, recently one of the patients they support asked for help with paying for the bone marrow donor search in the foreign registry.  Travel restrictions affected Russian charities like Advita Fund as well - it is now more difficult to deliver transplant material in time for the transplant procedure.  However, they are still doing their best to support the cancer patients.

If you would like to increase the impact of your donation, please mark your calendars for the week of April 3-7.  During that week, GlobalGiving will add 50% bonus on all donations up to $50 as part of its annual Little by Little campaign.  Your little acts of kindness can make a BIG difference! 

Savva is a 26-year old doctor from Russia.  He grew up dreaming of saving people's lives and after graduating from high school he enrolled into a medical college in Siberia.  Unfortunately, in the summer following his 3rd year in college, Savva was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.  It was difficult to treat, and he ended up going through multiple chemotherapy cycles and radiation treatment only to achieve short-lasting remissions.

Savva does not have a matching bone marrow transplant donor, so the only chance for him to overcome lymphoma is to try recently developed CAR T-cell therapy.  This therapy is a type of treatment in which a patient's T cells (a type of immune system cell) are changed in the laboratory so they will attack cancer cells.  A majority of Hodgkin's lymphoma patients respond, with many experiencing complete disappearance of cancer cells.  This therapy is well tolerated, as unlike bone marrow transplants from a donor, this treatment uses the patient's own cells, so there is no danger of the body rejecting the cells. 

This year, we have supported only one patient from Russia who needed a bone marrow from a foreign donor.  We have not had any recent requests from Russian patients, likely due to effect of border closures and sanctions imposed by EU governments.   Deliveries of bone marrow material from abroad have to occur within a very short timeframe - generally, within 72 hours.  Delays at the border and inability to extend visas would complicate decisions about using foreign donors.

For now, we will use the funds raised through this project to support cancer patients in other ways - whether they need to travel to Spain for CAR T-cell treatment, like Savva, or lack medications, or require help with lodging while they are treated in foreign countries.  We will continue to support cancer patients from all countries in the former Soviet Union, as has been our mission for the last 10 years.  Thank you so much for your support of our project!

Alexander is a 31-year-old father of three from the southern Russian city of Stavropol.  After college he became a programmer specializing in 1C accounting software.  In fall of 2019 Alexander started feeling unwell:  his skin turned yellow and he could barely take the stairs.  By April 2020 he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare condition that occurs when your body stops producing enough new blood cells.  Alexander began depending on twice montly blood transfusions to stay alive.  In August 2020 he managed to receive treatment in St. Petersburg where he was given Atgam medication that allowed him to achieve partial remission for eight months. Unfortunately, once he relapsed he had to resume frequent blood transfusions - once every six weeks.

In April 2022 his doctors concluded that Alexander's sole chance to survive is to undergo urgent bone marrow transplantation from a donor. His potential matches are only available in the foreign bone marrow registries.  The cost of donor search and activation is not covered by Russian healthcare, and Alexander is unable to afford it on his own. After several years of treatment, Alexander was forced to declare bankruptsy and can no longer borrow any money.  Likewise, his wife had to borrow a lot of money while Alexander was on a medical leave.  For Alexander to have a chance to live, they have to rely on their friends, family and the kindness of strangers.

Thanks to your support, we were able to transfer a deposit of 5,000 euros to initiate the donor search for Alexander.  We hope that Alexander will soon be able to receive the lifesaving treatment.  If you would like to support more patients like Alexander, please join us on July 20th during GlobalGiving Bonus day.  On this day, the bonus funds of $400,000 will be allocated as follows:

• 30% match on donations from $100 - $499 (while funds remain)
• 40% match on donations from $500 - $749 (while funds remain)
• 50% match on donations from $750 - $1,000 (while funds remain)

If you are able to support us, please do so early, as soon as the contest starts at 9 am ET on Wednesday, July 20th. If you sign up for a recurring donation, you will also receive a 100% match on the recurring donation amount (after 4 monthly donations).  Thanks again for your support for this project and for doing what you can to save lives.

Like most of the world, we were horrified by the news of Russian invasion of Ukraine.  This war is a catastrophe for both countries, and countless ordinary citizens will bear the cost of the decision made by one deranged individual. 

For cancer patients who need bone marrow translants from foreign donors, it will become much more difficult to get the transplant material delivered within a short time frame while the skies over Europe are closed for the Russian airlines.  Our partner, Advita fund in St. Petersburg is looking at delivering transplant material via Turkey, which currently is still accepting flights from Russia. 

Over the last few years, Advita fund was able to grow their database of the potential bone marrow donors within Russia, and for this reason the need for searches in foreign registries decreased. Last year, 15-20% of transplant material came from the foreign donors.

We will continue to watch how things develop and work with Advita fund in St. Petersburg in supporting blood cancer patients, when possible.  Our best hope is to end the war as soon as possible and we urge you to do what you can.  Together, we can affect change. 

Larisa is an accountant and a mom of two boys.  She has been living in Stavropol in southwestern Russia her whole life, and she enjoyed her happy marriage and the great outdoor nearby. 

Unfortunately, in 2019 she had a severe bleeding and had to be hospitalized.  Blood tests revealed serious issues with her blood, and Larisa was diagnosed with acquired idiopathic aplastic anemia, a rare blood disorder resulting from bone marrow failure to produce blood cells.  Larisa began treatment immediately, but it did not help her, and she has been relying on monthly blood transfusions ever since.  However, ongoing transfusions too can cause serious health issues.  The only remaining treatment is bone marrow transplant from a donor. 

No matching donors were found among Larisa's relatives or in the Russian donor registry.  Her only hope is to find an unrelated donor in an international donor registry.  The cost of the search is 23 thousand euros - an astronomical amount for Larisa's family.  Her husband is a driver, and he is the only provider at this time.  The family was able to come up with 6,000 euros, but needs help raising the rest of the money.

We would love to help Larisa and other patients like her!  This year, we were able to support 5 cancer patients with the total payments to the donor regsitry of over $32,000.  We hope that with your help we can increase this number and save even more lives!

Thank you so much for your kind support!  Keep an eye on the Giving Tuesday - an annual event celebrating charitable community, its volunteers, donors and supporters.  This year it will occur on November 30th and all your donations to our project will receive a proportional match from GlobalGiving's total bonus fund of $1 million.  We would love for you to mark your calendars and show us your support on that day.

Thank you and enjoy your holiday season!

Each of the patients we support has a story to tell, and every experience is unique. It is our priviledge to be able to witness these moving stories and provide help whenever possible.  We hope that by sharing these stories with you we let you see the world through the eyes of someone who faces a terminal illness - and finds strength to live a normal life.

One of the most inspring patients we have seen is 21-year-old Yegor from Moscow. In January, he had the third recurrence of acute leukemia.  The first time he got sick he was 15, and his treatment lasted almost 2.5 years. Yegor was in remission for only eight months, but in that time he was able to accomplish a lot - he graduated from high school, passed a driving test and got his driving license, and enrolled into Sechenov Moscow First State University to study medicine.

When Yegor relapsed in August 2018, the doctors searched extensively for a compatible bone marrow donor in Russian and foreign registries, but none was found.  In December of that year, Yegor received a transplant from his father who was a 50% match, but he relapsed just months after.  The next transplant was from his mother who was a 70% match.  Through these challenging times, Yegor continued his college studies - mostly remotely, but also in person when he was able to attend.

After the third relapse, Yegor was able to achieve remission thanks to recently approved innovative therapy with CAR T-cells. However, to strengthen the remission he still needs to undergo bone marrow transplant from a donor.  Fortunately, there are now potentially matching unrelated donors available in the registry in Germany.  While the family was able to raise money for the initial deposit, they are struggling to cover the whole bill after exhausting their financial resources over the years of Yegor's illness.

Yegor's calm determination to live his life on his own terms regards of what obstacles come his way is very impressive, especially for someone so young.   Still, for Yegor and many other blood cancer patients, bone marrow transplants are often the only curative treatments for blood cancers.  Finding a matching donor withourt delay will allow these patients to return to normal lives and achieve their dreams. But they can't do it on their own - and we are so grateful for your support!   

Alina is a young woman from a village in Samara region.  Since childhood she has been very active and great at sports. Many times she took first prizes in competitions.  After she graduated from school she studied to become a chef.  But in 2014 while she was in her second year of college, she was constantly sick with what seemed like flu - fevers, fatigue, nose and gum bleeds, and fainting spells.  Alina was hospitalized in the regional hospital for two months, but she did not get any better.  Then she was transferred to Hematology unit of regional University hospital and that's where she was diagnosed with acquired idiopathic aplastic anemia - a type of blood disorder in which bone marrow stops producing enough blood cells. 

Alina began relying on blood transfusions and immunosuppressive therapy, but two years later her condition worsened once again.  She developed paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria - a blood disease in which red blood cells are destroyed.  In addition, frequent blood transfusion led to iron overload in her blood.  Alina's condition continued to deteriorate over time and in late 2019 she was referred to St. Peterburg for bone marrow transplant - the only potential cure in her situation.

It took a long time - over a year - to find a matching donor for Alina. Finally, in February 2021 a donor was found in Israel.  Alina was scheduled for pre-transplant therapy to be followed by transplantation.  Unfortunately, her father passed away, and her family is unable to afford the full cost of bone marrow donor search.  Thanks to your support, we will be able to make a deposit of 5000 euros to help Alina access the lifesaving treatment as soon as possible.

We are very grateful for your support despite the pandemic and all the challenges it has brought on!   Thank you for being with us and stay safe! 

Giving Tuesday is coming up on December 1!  If you haven't heard of it before, it's the largest fundraising day of the year, during which charity friends and volunteers come together to drive the wave of support for their chosen cause. 

We hope you will consider supporting our project once again!  This year GlobalGiving is sharing the largest ever bonus with everyone who contributes that day - $1 million.  The money will be allocated among all of the GlobalGiving charities according to the total raised by each.  So the more we raise, the more bonus we will receive!

This year has been tough for most of us, and we know that many of our supporters had financial difficulties.  Still, we have been receiving a steady flow of donations and we are incredibly grateful to you for keeping cancer patients close to your heart.  Thanks to your help, we transferred over $55,000 to bone marrow registry in Germany to benefit nine blood cancer patients. 

Our latest beneficiary is Anna.  She lives in Irkutsk in Siberia and is a mom of two young children.  In February 2019 she suddenly fell ill with high fever.  After an evaluation, she was diagnosed with monoblastic leukemia.  Anna began chemotherapy and even though she had severe side effects - sepsis, brain hemorrhage and kidney failure - she persevered and achieved remission.  However, Anna still needed to undergo bone marrow transplantation from a donor to ensure her remission lasts.  Her sisters were not good matches, and there were no matching donors in the Russian registry, so Anna's doctors had to look abroad.  After finding a match in the German registry, Anna underwent transplantation in October. She is now recovering. Our project was able to transfer 2000 euros to help Anna cover the cost of donor search - and we are so grateful for your support! 

Please join us on December 1 - from midnight to 11:59 p.m. EST and help us support more patients like Anna!

As we are adjusting to life during pandemic, many patients are beginning to regain access to postponed procedures, therapies and treatments.  Since July, bone marrow donor searches resumed in foreign donor registries and we are now able to procure matching donor cells and bring them across the borders. 

Most recently, we transferred 15,000 euros to a German donor registry to help three young cancer patients with their registry bills.  All of these patients have been fighting cancer for many years, and one has been stricken with two cancers in eight years. 

In 2012 Evgenia, a young accountant and a single mom, began having fevers and nightly sweats.  After months of treatment with antibiotics, she had a proper evaluation and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.  Evgenia was successfully treated and remained in remission until April 2020.  Suddenly she started feeling unwell, and her blood tests came back abnormal.  Evgenia was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and urgently hospitalized.  This type of blood cancer needs to be treated with a bone marrow transplant from a donor, but Evgenia's parents have passed away and she has no siblings.  No matches turned up in the Russian donor registry, but the registries abroad have potential donors. 

For patients like Evgenia your support is vital, as Russian government does not pay for donor searches abroad.  Thank you so much for offering Evgenia and patients like her a lifeline of support!   This week (until Friday, September 18th), you will be able to multiply the impact of your donation by participating in Little by Little campaign. Every donation of up to $50 will get a 50% match from GlobalGiving, and new monthly donations will get an additional 100% match!  Please consider joining this generous campaign and helping patients get through this difficult year. 

Thanks again for your care and support!  Stay safe! 

As global coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe, it impacted all of us in a variety of ways and continues to change the way we live.  Cancer care too has been severely disrupted: closed borders made travel challenging, research has been interrupted, and patients' treatment has been postponed in many cases. 

Patients awaiting results of bone marrow donor search in foreign registries had to adjust to a new reality as registries stopped shipping donors' cells abroad.  This meant patients had to either risk postponing bone marrow transplants, or agree to riskier transplants from half-matched relatives.   For a minority of patients, a small patchwork of domestic registries may turn up a good match. 

For now, uncertainty around pandemic and closed borders led to a freeze in foreign registry searches.  We don't know how long it is going to last, but we expect that demand for foreign donors will resume once international travel becomes safe. We will keep you updated on any changes impacting our project and the patients we support during these unprecedented times.  For now, please stay safe and take good care of yourselves. Thank you for staying with us!

These are challenging times for everyone.  With Covid-19 pandemic spreading through the world, all of us will feel its effects.  It is important to follow guidance from health officials to minimize the spread of coronavirus - for our own good, and to protect the most vulnerable populations: elderly and those with existing medical conditions.

Cancer patients are particularly exposed at this time.  While cancer wreaks havoc on the body, chemotherapy and radiation treatment also cause many side effects and depress immune system.  As pandemic advances, shortages of masks and basic sterlizing supplies, and overwhelmed hospitals may leave the patients unprotected and easliy susceptible to deadly disease.

We urge you to protect yourself and your loved ones first.  But if you feel that you are adequately prepared and able to help others, please consider joining GlobalGiving's bonus week starting on Monday, March 23rd and lasting until Friday, March 27th.  During that time, GlobalGiving will add 50% bonus on all small donations (up to $50).  Larger donations are also welcome, but a bonus will be capped at $25.   

Your help will support patients like Evgeny, 32-year old renovation manager from Krasnodar.  He is married, with two young children.  Ten months ago Evgeny was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), high-risk. Most of CML patients do well on long-term therapy with a targeted medication, but Evgeny quickly developed resistance to it.  He had no response to second-line therapy either.  His bone marrow did not function normally, and Evgeny had to go for regular blood transfusions to stay alive.  Bone marrow transplant from a donor was Evgeny's only chance to survive.  Since his sister did not match as a donor, he needed to find and activate a donor from a registry in Germany, where several potential matches were identified.  In February, a best match was found and Evgeny received bone marrow transplant.  He is now recovering.  However, he still owes almost 3,000 euros to the registry from the original bill of 18,000 euros. 

Your help will lessen the financial burden of cancer for Evgeny's family and others like him.  We believe in the power of our small donors to make a large impact and save lives of many patients.  Thanks again for your kind support! 

Stay well and be safe!

This year we have received fantastic support from our donors!  We spent almost $75,000 to help 12 patients with leukemia find matching bone marrow donors in the registries outside Russia.  It's the largest amount we spent on this program since we started 10 years ago.  Thank you for allowing us to keep growing! 

We would love to offer even more support to cancer patients awaiting transplants. Currently, over 30 patients in St. Petersburg need help to afford bone marrow donor searches.  The sooner they are able to find the donors, the better their chances to beat cancer.

One of these patients is Stephania.  She is a single mom of two young girls.  Stephania is a stylist and hairdresser and has always tried to lead a healthy lifestyle.  Unfortunately, last summer she developed odd symptoms that would not go away: allergies, fatigue, shortness of breath, nosebleeds... It took two months to diagnose her with acute monoblastic leukemia.  This type of leukemia requires bone marrow transplant, but Stephania does not have a matching related donor.  She needs to pay 18,000 euros to find an unrelated donor abroad.  Now that she is hospitalized, she is unable to work, and cannot afford to pay the donor registry bill.  Your help will allow patients like Stephania access treatment that they vitally need.

Thanks again for your support for this important project.  We are truly grateful and wish you a very happy New Year! 

It's hard to believe, but we are already in October, and before we know it, the holiday season will be here!  As temperatures cool, we are starting to take preliminary account of our results this year.  We are happy to report that in 2019, our program to help leukemia patients afford bone marrow donor searches has seen an increase in donations, with almost $75,000 spent to date to support 13 patients. 

We are proud of your trust in us and dedication to our cause!   Bone marrow transplants are the only chance for cure for many leukemia patients.  Your support makes it possible and literally makes life or death difference for the patients.  Thank you so much! 

Our latest support recipient is a 23-year old Violetta from a village in Rostov region.  After she graduated from college, Violetta moved to a city, Rostov-on-Don, and studied to become an accountant.  Only two years into her career, Violetta became ill - she started having persistent nosebleeds and  stomachaches, and became fatigued.  The tests showed Violetta had blood abnormalities and an enlarged spleen, and she was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia.  Although many patients like her are able to stay on oral medication for many years, Violetta developed complications and severe side effects to standard therapy.  In June she was moved to a third-line drug, but it was uncertain how long she would be able to tolerate the treatment.  For this reason, she was referred for bone marrow transplantation that could be curative in her case.  On October 1st Violetta underwent transplantation from an unrelated donor that was found in Germany.  She is now recovering and feeling relatively well overall. 

Thanks again for supporting Violetta and patients like her!  Wishing you a happy and bountiful fall season! 

The Independence Day fireworks may be over, but the excitement continues to build!  A few days ago, GlobalGiving announced that they will offer one of the largest bonus prizes in their history for their bonus day on July 18th (starting 9 am ET or 16:00 Moscow time).  A total of $250,000 in matching funds plus $10,000 in additional prizes will be offered that day.  

Donations will be matched based on amount:

• Donations $100 - $499 USD will be matched at 15%
• Donations of $500 - $749 USD will be matched at 30%
• Donations of $750 - $1,000 USD will be matched at 50%

If you are financially comfortable, we encourage you to donate at the top of your ability.  The more you give - the higher bonus you will earn for the cancer patients.  

Donations of less than $100 will not be matched this time.  However, another bonus day is coming up the week of August 12th that will celebrate our small but mighty donors and award bonuses on donations of up to $50.  Save the date!

Our partner, Advita fund in St. Petersburg does incredible work supporting patients in need of bone marrow transplants.  During summer they often run low on funds, as many of their supporters leave town on vacations and postpone their giving.  These bonus days in July and August will give us an opportunity to close this gap and ensure all patients in need are able to access bone marrow donors in foreign registries.  

Unfortunately, most of cancer patients in Russia require some level of financial support.  Particularly for leukemia patients,  imported new medications and searches for bone marrow donors abroad are very costly and not covered by government-sponsored healthcare.  Even patients in their prime earning age are often unable to afford lifesaving drugs and procedures.  

One of our recent beneficiaries, Alexei, is a young man from Crimea.  He got sick suddenly in fall of 2014: his backaches were getting progressively worse until he was hospitalized and diagnosed with acute leukemia.  He underwent lengthy treatment, but  relapsed in August 2018.  Bone marrow transplant is Alexei's chance for cure, but he did not match any of the potential donors in the Russian registry and needed to expand his search abroad.  Alexei was unable to afford the services of the German registry, but thanks to your support we were able to cover the cost of the search.  On June 28th Alexei received stem cell transplant and is now recovering.

Thank you for supporting Alexei and many other patients like him!  We are so grateful to have you as our donor.  We hope we can count on you to join us during one of the bonus days and help even more patients.

Have a great summer!

Our latest support recipient is Elena, a widow from Volgograd.  She was initially diagnosed with acute myelomonoblastic leukemia in 2011.  Her son Pavel was 7 years old then, and he spent a year living with his 77-year old grandmother while his mom was hospitalized.  Eventually, Elena recovered and returned home.  Things went back to normal:  Elena worked as a pharmacist, while her son was doing well in school.  Every summer they went to vacation at Black sea resorts. 

Unexpectedly, in April 2018 Elena had a relapse of her disease.  She had to start chemotherapy again, and this time she also needed bone marrow transplant from a donor.  There were no matching donors in Russian registries, but potential donors were found abroad.  The cost of the search is 18,000 euros, plus additional charges to deliver transplant by courier.  This is Elena's only chance to beat her disease and see her son grow up.  Pavel is currently 14, and he cannot imagine his world without his mom.   His grandmother is very old and frail now, and she no longer leaves her house. 

Thanks to your help, we were able to pay off Elena's debt to the donor registry in Germany.  Three weeks ago she underwent stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor and she is now recovering.  She feels rather well overall, but is not yet allowed to get up due to a blood clot that formed in her vein and requires therapy with blood thinners.  Thanks again for supporting patients like Elena who have few people to turn to for help.    We are wishing her the speediest recovery!

We have great news to report:  thanks to your generosity during the holiday season, we were able to transfer $30,000 to the registry in Germany and use these funds to help pay off debts of 5 blood cancer patients!  What a great way to start a year for these patients!  Your financial support is much appreciated and will help the patients breathe a bit easier as they continue on their path to recovery. 

Here is a couple of stories of the patients who have received your support this time: 

Anastasia is from a small town in Siberia.  She is an elementary and English teacher who loves her job and her students.  In 2009 Anastasia had a daughter. All was going great.  But in 2014 she got sick with a regular cold, it seemed.  However, her blood test was abnormal and then a biopsy showed that she had issues with her bone marrow, and so all of a sudden Anastasia was diagnosed with leukemia.  It was a difficult time, as she not only had to battle cancer, but also deal with a dissolution of her marriage.  Anastasia achieved remission and stayed on maintenance chemo for two years.  Things were getting back to normal.  She even met someone and got married again.  But then leukemia returned in January 2018 and the treatment had to be restarted.  This time Anastasia has support of her husband, and their two children.  She is in remission, but for the remission to be sustained, she needed bone marrow transplant from a donor.   On Valentine's Day, she received transplant from a foreign donor and is now recovering. 

Ekaterina is from St. Petersburg.  She is a mom of two little boys: her oldest in the 2nd grade, and the youngest just a year old.  In May 2018 Katya was diagnosed with myelomonoblastic leukemia.  She is very artistic and a designer by profession.  She loved her interior designer job, and enjoyed traveling, yoga and caring for the boys.  All of it changed in last April when Katya started feeling fatigued, became nauseous and lightheaded. By now she completed several rounds of chemotherapy, but bone marrow transplant is a necessity in her situation.  Katya's brother did not match her as a donor, and the family had to search for the donor abroad.  While they were able to raise about a third of the required amount, they needed support of others to pay off the registry bill.  In December Katya received a transplant from donor.  She is still undergoing recovery and fighting off infections that developed due to her low immunity. 

We are wishing Anastasia and Ekaterina speediest recovery!  Thank you for your support of these courageous young women and others like them!

The year is coming to an end, and what a year it has been!  But no matter how uncertain and volatile the things are in the wider world, our work remains constant and focused on the same goals as in the past:  helping cancer patients access modern treatments.  To this end, we have supported 7 patients with blood cancers and spend over $43,000 to allow them to afford bone marrow donor searches.  These are people of all ages, of different professions and from various regions of Russia.  The only thing that unites them is their diagnosis - something that happened to them randomly, out of nowhere.  It's not only an emotional shock, but a financial disaster, as so many costs of treatment the patients are expected to pay on their own - including searches for a foreign bone marrow donor for those who need them. 

Oleg is the patient we supported most recently.  He was born in Kazakhstan, but after the Soviet Union collapsed, he moved his family to St. Petersburg.  Oleg loves to travel and he had worked as a driver his whole career.  In 2017 he was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood disorder that can transfom into leukemia.  Only bone marrow transplant from a donor can cure Oleg. Unfortunately, no matching donors were found within Russia and the search was extended to the donor registries abroad where there are several potential matches.  Oleg's family already made an initial payment of 6,000 euros to the registry after selling his daughter's apartment.  However, they could not afford to pay off the balance of the registry bill.  Your help allowed us to transfer 6,900 euros to the registry and help Oleg with this financial burden. 

There are many other patients like Oleg: people of modest means, breadwinners, parents of young children.  Very rarely there are patients who can afford cancer treatment on their own.  Most patients will need our help at some point in their treatment journey.  We hope you can consider making a gift to these people as part of your holiday giving.  One of the best gifts would be a recurring donation, since patients need help throughout the year, not just during holidays.  Now is the best time to sign up, as until December 31st Global Giving will add an additional 100% match on the initial donation (up to $200 per donor) as long as it remains active for at least four consecutive payments! 

Thank you for supporting us this year!  We wish you a joyful holiday season and a happy New Year!

Yuri is 25 years old. It seemed that his life was on the right track. Yuri graduated from high school and enrolled into a mining college. He led a healthy lifestyle, was active in sports and enjoyed traveling with his parents. He even made plans to marry his girlfriend Ksenia. 

However, since 2007 Yuri had enlarged lymph nodes on his neck. Initially, the doctors were not concerned. In 2010 they began growing rapidly, and Yuri underwent evaluation again. This time, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, cancer of lymphatic system.  Yuri was shocked by the news, but with his girlfriend's support he began treatment and achieved remission. For several years, all was well: Yuri returned to school and his usual active lifestyle. 

Unfortunately, in 2014 he began showing signs of disease recurrence, and the treatment had to be restarted. Bone marrow transplant was needed to help Yuri sustain remission. In 2015 Yuri was evaluated, but treatment in his local clinic was not successful, and in 2016 he was referred to St. Petersburg for therapy with newer drugs that were recently approved for lymphoma.  After many months on treatment, Yuri's disease is now in remission and he is finally ready for bone marrow transplant. Since he does not have a matching donor in Russia, the doctors initiated a search abroad. Yuri's family resources are exhausted after years of treatment, and they need our help.

If you would like to help Yuri and patients like him, support our project during Bonus day that starts on September 12th (7 am Moscow time) and ends on September 13th (4 pm Moscow time). All donations up to $1,500 will get a bonus from GlobalGiving, proportionally to the total amount raised. Or sign up for automatic monthly donations, and receive 100% bonus after 4 monthly payments. 

Thank you so much for your support!

We would like to thank everyone who supported us during the Bonus Day in March, our recurring donors, and everyone who had contributed since.  Because of your kindness, we were able to help two more patients with paying the bills from the donor registry in Germany.  Both of them have already received their donors' stem cells and are now in recovery period. 

One of the patients is Rinat from Surgut, an oil city in Siberia.  Rinat is the oldest of two brothers.  His father passed away, and his mom is retired.  Rinat graduated from college with a specialty in oil production, but could not find a job in the industry.  He ended up working in a warehouse.  In 2013 he started feeling unwell and blacked out a few times.  When he had a severe tonsillitis in early 2014, he had a blood test that revealed blood cancer.  After seven blocks of chemotherapy, Rinat achieved remission.  Unfortunately, a year ago he relapsed with a more complicated type of leukemia than the first time.  Only bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor would give Rinat a chance to beat leukemia - and thanks to your support he was able to use it! 

Another patient, Irina, comes from northern Russia.  She was born in Murmansk region and later moved to Karelia.  She worked as an elementary school teacher, and then as an emergency call line operator.  A year ago, Irina herself began needing help.  She suddenly grew fatigued and developed bruises over her body.  After going to a checkup, Irina was diagnosed with MDS, a pre-leukemic blood disorder.  Irina had to relocate to St. Petersburg, as the doctors in her city had no experience with the disease.  She was recommended therapy with a newly approved drug, as well as bone marrow transplant, the only chance for complete cure.  There were potential bone marrow donors for Irina, but all of them were in foreign registries.  With the help of her son, she was able to afford initial deposit, but the rest of the bill was out of reach.  Fortunately, your support enabled Irina to mobilize a donor and undergo transplantation!

Thanks again for your care for patients like Rinat and Irina.  There are many other patients like them who cannot afford donor searches on their own.  We will make sure to continue bringing their stories to you, so you know exactly who was helped and where your donation made a difference in the world.  

All the best from our team and hope you have a great summer!

With love,

Anton is a young man from Russian city of Perm near Ural mountains.  He loves music and photography.  Anton chose to become a programmer and had developed expertise in the eight years of his career.  Unfortunately, it was cut short by a worrisome diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome.  This is a blood disorder that can transform into leukemia at any moment.  The only cure for it is transplantation of bone marrow stem cells from a donor.  Until then Anton has to remain on maintenance chemotherapy and spend weeks at a time in a hospital. 

Anton began his search for a donor in Russian registries, but no matches were found.  The only potential matches were located abroad and the cost of the search amounted to 18,000 euros.  Anton is struggling with raising funds, as his dad is retired and his mom passed away.  His younger brother is a student in college. 

A few days ago we were able to support Anton and transfer 5,000 euros to German registry for the donor search bill.  How could we accomplish that?  Fortunately, we have dozens of dedicated supporters whose monthly donations allow us to have a reliable inflow of funds.  Many others make small donations periodically, but over time they add up to a significant number. 

The week of April 9th will offer another chance for our donors to show the power of small donations.  GlobalGiving will match donations up to $50 at 50% while the $50,000 in matching funds remain.  In addition, there will be $3,000 in bonus prizes for the top 5 fundraising projects. There will also be a 100% match for new recurring donations started during this week!   So mark your calendars for 9 am EDT (16:00 Moscow time) on April 9th and note that the campaign will end on April 13th. 

Can we demonstrate our strength in numbers and turn small donations into a huge impact? 

Let's hope so!   See you then!

As 2017 is coming to an end, we are looking back to see what we had accomplished.  During the year this project had supported seven blood cancer patients who could not afford the search for an unrelated bone marrow donor.  Thanks to your help, we were able to contribute $30,000 to allow these patients to undergo bone marrow transplants and get another chance for cure. 

While there continues to be a number of patients who need our support with paying the bills from foreign bone marrow donor registries, some of them needs our help more than others.  For example, Natasha comes from Kunashir, one of Kuril islands in Russia's Far East.  She is a single mom of her 5-year old son Artem.  A year ago, she started developing bruises on her body, turned pale, began having headaches and became fatigued.  A blood test showed that her blood counts plummeted and Natasha was hospitalized in Hematology unit.  In February she traveled across the country to Moscow for a consultation and was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia.   The treatment for this disorder is bone marrow transplant, so Natasha was referred to St. Petersburg's Gorbacheva Institute to begin tests and start a donor search.  Unfortunately, Natasha's sister was not a good match, and she had to look for an unrelated donor.  Most times, a registry in Germany finds matching donors, but because of Natasha's rare genotype, a donor was located only in the US, and the costs were twice as high. I hope you can contribute to our effort to help Natasha get well so she can be reunited  with her little son soon. 

Thank you so much for your support for our project this year.  Have a great New Year ahead filled with joy and happiness!

Alexander is a young man from Moscow, a lawyer by training and an investigator by profession.  Three years ago he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and was hospitalized immediately.  After five cycles of chemotherapy it was necessary for him to undergo bone marrow transplantation.  Although his brother was not a fully matching donor, there were no better matches anywhere in the world.  Transplantation took place in May 2015. 

A few months later, Alexander had a relapse.  Additional therapy was administered, and while it succedded in inducing remission, it also caused severe graft versus host disease - a reaction of Alexander's own cells to presence of donor's cells.  Alexander's stomach, liver and digestive tract were affected.  Later, the disease involved his lungs, and he was put on a ventilator for a time.  Gradually, some issues resolved, but Alexander's liver continued to cause concerns to his doctors.  A new medication still undergoing clinical trials was proposed as off-label treatment.  Fortunately, it worked well for Alexander and he experienced significant improvement.  We are hopeful that he will soon overcome the last hurdles in his path to complete recovery. 

Thanks to your donations, we were recently able to buy medication that helped Alexander.  Stem cell transplants are still very risky procedures, and some patients require years to deal with after-effects of treatment.  Supporting them all the way is very important to ensure eventual success.

Thanks again for your care and support!  You help us continue to save more lives, and we treasure your trust in us.

Wishing you a most joyous holiday season!

Leukemia often strikes children and young adults, and even though our project supports patients of all ages, many of them are young people under 30.  So far this year we supported six young people with the costs of searches for bone marrow donors.  In some cases, patients need to search for the donors more than once.  For example, Petr, a cello player from St. Petersburg was diagnosed with leukemia in 2011 when he was only 16.  After disease relapse, he needed bone marrow transplantation from a donor and was able to undergo it in 2015.  But afterwards the bone marrow from the donor never engrafted fully, causing two more disease recurrences.  A new drug for leukemia became available meanwhile, and it helped Petr get into remission again.  However, he needs to receive donor's stem cell infusions periodically to maintain remission.  Over the years, the original stem cell harvest was exhausted, and Petr needed additional cells to be procured.  Thanks to donations we received this year, we were able to cover the new bill from the donor registry. 

This summer GlobalGiving is trying something different to support non-profits serving young people.  Starting at 9:00am EDT on Monday, August 7th, and running until 11:59pm EDT on International Youth Day, Saturday, August 12th, GlobalGiving will apply $13,000 in matching funds at 100% on all donations up to $250. Additionally, there is a 100% match on all recurring donations started during the campaign week (up to $250). GlobalGiving will also be giving out $2,000 worth of bonus prizes to the top 3 projects with the most funds raised and top 3 projects with the most unique donors.

We hope you will join us on August 7th or later that week and help us support young patients like Petr!  Make sure to donate early to maximize your chances of getting the match!

Thank you so much for your kindness!

Our project is continuing to grow from year to year!  So far by May we raised more than in the previous years and were able to contribute almost $19,000 to the costs of bone marrow donor searches for 5 patients with blood cancers.  These five patients are all young people, majority of them are students.  Here is just one story of our most recently supported patient. 

Ilya is 35.  He is an engineer and lives in Ivanovo in central Russia. He loves rock music, nature, traveling around Russia and swimming.  Tinkering with computers and creating websites is another passion.  Until two years ago, Ilya was rarely ill.  And then a sudden pain in his spine caused him to start visiting doctors and then landed him in a hospital.   Upon examination, Ilya was diagnosed with chronic leukemia.  Although it can be treated, Ilya needed to undergo bone marrow transplant from a donor to prevent his disease from returning. 

Ilya has no siblings, and a search in the Russian donor database yielded no matches. His data was forwarded to the German registry where a matching donor was found in March 2017.  A month later, after additional chemotherapy helped Ilya achieve remission, the doctors transplanted him the donor's stem cells.  He is now recovering.  

For the last two years, Ilya was unable to work.  His savings are depleted, and his only close relative - his mom - has been retired for many years.  Without help from people like you, it would hardly be possible for Ilya to access the right treatment at the right time. Thanks you so much for your support for Ilya and patients like him! 

As we are wrapping up the results of 2016, we can already say that however much uncertainty we face in the future, we can always rely on our supporters and their commmittment to making the world a better place.  Last year, you helped us raise over $47,000 for nine cancer patients in St. Petersburg who needed bone marrow transplants from foreign donors.  Moreover, we now have 32 recurring donors who donate to the project every month!   This is an incredible vote of confidence and we will continue to do our best to make you proud of joining forces with us! 

Currently, almost 50 patients in St. Petersburg need help with paying for the search for the donors abroad.  Among them are young professionals, students, moms and dads, daughters and sons - a cross-section of society.  Cancer, it seems, can strike anyone at any time.  That is why it is important for all of us to come together to support those who have been affected by cancer.

Young people may be particularly vulnerable, as they are only starting their careers and often have no financial cushion to fall back on.  For example, Yulia is just 22 and a recent Animal Science graduate.  As she was applying for her Master's degree admission, she started feeling unwell and had fever, fatigue and fainting spells.  A blood test uncovered blood cancer: acute myeloid leukemia.  Yulia started chemotherapy immediately, and achieved remission.  However, her treatment is not over.  She needs to undergo bone marrow transplantation from an unrelated donor to make sure that leukemia does not return.  As a matching donor was not found in Russia, she needs to pay for the search in the registry in Germany.  Yulia's dad is a retired Army officer, and her mom had passed away.  Yulia cannot afford the cost of search on her own and has to rely on our help to find a donor and have a chance to live. 

We hope to send another payment to the donor registry in Germany and support Yulia and other patients like her very soon.  Thanks again for your generosity and kindness!

We have some exciting news to share! The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has generously provided $500,000 in matching funds for #GivingTuesday!  Today people around the world celebrate and support their favorite causes, and we hope you join #GivingTuesday and show your support for patients with cancer!     

Today there will be an unprecedented 50% matching for #GivingTuesday donations up to the first $1 million raised!  The bonus will be added to all donations of up to $1,000 per unique donor, but only until the funds last.  Make sure to make your donation early to get that bonus!

In addition to this huge matching opportunity, all new recurring donations made from today through December 31st will be matched at 200% up to $100, on the 4th donation!  

Any way you choose to participate will be a great help for patients in St. Petersburg who await bone marrow transplants.  The donor registry in Russia is still too small to provide matching donors for every patient, so the majority of donors are found abroad, especially in Germany. 

Sergei is one of the patients who urgently need help.  Last summer, after finishing the 3rd year of Transportation college in Tambov, Russia, Sergei suddenly got fever and developed chest pains.  When a blood test reurned abnormal, Sergei was diagnosed with acute leukemia.  He now needs to undergo bone marrow transplant to reach sustained remission.  As his younger sister was not a good match, he needs to find an unrelated donor.  Sergei is only 19, but he is an optimist and a fighter and ready to do anything to overcome his disease. 

Thank you for your kindness and support for patients like Sergei!  Together, we are making a real difference for patients with blood cancers! 

In our last report we asked for support for Anton - and you delivered!   After the last Bonus Day we were able to transfer 4,000 euros for his donor search in German registry.  Once a matching donor was found, Anton was scheduled for transplantation - and it took place last week!  He is now recovering and feeling better every day.  Thanks to your generous support, Anton has a real chance to beat leukemia and resume his life with his young family.

Another Bonus Day is coming up soon - on Wednesday, September 21.  This is the last Bonus Day of the year, and GlobalGiving will donate $60,000 in funds that will be applied as 30% bonus.  The $60,000 available in matching funds will be divided into two equal pots of $30,000 each, which will be available as matching funds beginning at 06:00 am EDT (13:00 Moscow time) and 12:00 pm EDT (19:00 Moscow time) respectively. Please mark the day and make sure to donate at bonus release times!  All donations of up to $1,000 are eligible for a bonus, but only while the funds last. 

The funds raised during Bonus Day will be used to help patients like Roman. He is a 21-year-old Architecture student from Bashkortostan region. He had high hopes and aspiration for his budding career, but after just one year of college he started feeling unwell. Constant fatigue, lack of appetite and joint pains were exhausting, and eventually Roman went to see a physician. However, his doctor only referred him to have a blood test and diagnosed him with gastrointestinal problems. After two months of therapy and no improvement, Roman returned, but received a new prescription for gastrointestinal medicine.

Luckily, Roman had a cousin who worked as a lab technician and was concerned about his blood work. She suggested that Roman saw a hematologist instead, and soon after Roman was diagnosed with leukemia. He had to undergo grueling treatment that took 18 months to achieve remission. Roman was hoping that the worst was behind him, but just six months later he had a relapse.

By now, he has gone through more chemotherapy and is currently in remission again. But to ensure that he stays in remission, Roman needs to undergo bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor, as his sister was not a good match. A donor can be located in German registry, but the search for a donor and harvest of the stem cells are costly and unaffordable for Roman. I hope you will join us during the Bonus Day or become a recurring donor to help Roman and other patients who need our help.

Thank you!

During the last GlobalGiving Bonus Day, we raised $2,964, including a 36.91% bonus. Thank you everyone! As we've said earlier, your kind help has allowed us to initiate the donor bone marrow search for Irina from Tolyatti in Central Russia. In the meantime, the donor for her has been found! Irina feels better than before, and the transplantation is due to be scheduled presently.

The next Bonus Day is just around the corner - it will take place on Wednesday, June 15, from 9 am Eastern time, or 4 pm Moscow time, and will last until funds run out (or till 23:59 Eastern time, which is 06:59 Moscow time). The good news is that this time we are eligible for a 50% match from Global Giving as Superstars! $110,000 will be available in matching funds. In addition, two $1,000 bonus prizes will be awarded to the projects who have the highest number of donors and raise the most funds.

This Bonus Day we will be fundraising for Anton, a software engineer from St. Petersburg. He started feeling unwell in late 2015 and was diagnosed with M2 acute myeloblastic leukemia in mid-January 2016. He has since undergone four chemotherapy cycles, but his doctors say he will definitely need bone marrow transplantation. Unfortunately, he only has matches in the international registry, which means that he has to find 18,000 euros to recover. Anton is married and has an infant son who he hopes he will be able to raise.

If you'd like to help Anton on June 15, here are a couple of rules to keep in mind:

• Only donations made online are eligible for matching. This includes donations made by credit/debit card, PayPal, and GlobalGiving gift card.
• Donations of up to $1,000 per individual donor will be matched while funds remain from the $110,000 on GlobalGiving.org. Once the $110,000 in matching funds runs out, donations will no longer be matched.

As usual, thank you so much for your support!

We’ve had a great Bonus Day! With your help, we were able to transfer 5,000 euros to Stephan Morsch registry to initiate the donor search for Irina. Irina is a patient from Central Russia, who worked as a hospital nurse for nearly 25 years. In 2005, Irina was diagnosed with essential thrombocythopenia; ten years on, she consulted R. Gorbacheva Institute of Hematology and Transplantation in St. Petersburg due to disease progression and learned that she'd need bone marrow transplantation to recover. The donor search alone would have cost Irina and her family 18,000 euros - but thanks to your support, this amount is now 5,000 euros smaller. Irina sends her thanks to everyone who helped her in this difficult time. She is due to resume treatment on May 10.

If you want to help more patients like Irina, we would like to share a story of Inessa with you. Inessa lives in Ufa, a city on the Volga. She began feeling unwell in 2006, but it took her doctors a long time to find out what was wrong with her. Their final diagnosis was aplastic anemia. Unfortunately, last year Inessa's daughter was taken ill too, and she is still recovering after a serious fracture. Inessa's husband is disabled due to ill health. Despite all this, Inessa remains an optimist and says: "If you help someone from the heart and do not count on a favor in return, someday you'll get happiness that you've never even dreamed of!"

At present, St. Petersburg specialists are saying that Inessa needs bone marrow transplantation to get well. This means she will have to raise 18,000 euros on her own, as a foreign donor search is not covered by Russia’s state healthcare program and she only has donor matches in German registry. Inessa and her family would be very grateful for any support.

Many thanks once again – your help is invaluable and highly appreciated. May the month of May be merry for all of you!

Thank you so much for your support for our patients last year!  Our joint efforts helped us to contribute to the costs of bone marrow donor searches for 10 blood cancer patients.  They are children and adults, students and teachers who traveled to St. Petereburg from across Russia for bone marrow transplantations from unrelated donors, their last chances to beat cancer.   You can read some of the stories in our previous reports. 

Last year, Russian bone marrow donor registry had finally registered a significant number of donors - and it helped find matching donors for 19 lucky patients.  At the same time, collapse of the ruble led to more than doubling of the cost of searches abroad, and fewer patients can now afford it.  Our partner, Advita fund in St. Petersburg, had helped find donors for 99 patients last year. 

This year will not be any easier, and we hope that we can count on your continuing support. With February 14th around the corner, would you pick one of the patients as your Valentine?  Maybe you could consider Vyacheslav, a young man from Krasnoyarsk studying to become a civil engineer.  Since 2014 Slava has been suffering from lymphoma and undergoing numerous chemotherapy cycles, but his disease continued to progress.  Recently, he received therapy with a new drug that helped him control lymphoma, but he now needs bone marrow transplant from a donor to keep it from coming back again.  And he needs our help to make it happen. 

Thanks again for your kindness, and have a very happy Valentine's day!

Our latest Bonus Day has been very successful!  We raised and transferred 4,400 euros to the bone marrow donor registry in Germany to support Andrei Filinsky, a physicist and mathematician from St. Petersburg.  Andrei suffers from a recurrence of lymphoma, and stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor is now his only chance to beat his disease.  He is now one step closer to receiving this life-saving treatment.  Thanks again! 

Would you like to help more patients like Andrei?  There are currently 24 patients in St. Petersburg who cannot afford to pay for the donor search in registries abroad and need our support.  And now you can do more to help them. 

From December 1 through December 31, 2015, GlobalGiving will be running its annual Recurring Match Campaign.   The campaign will launch on one of the largest globally celebrated giving days of the year, #GivingTuesday.  This day is for embracing the holiday spirit and giving back to those who need our help.   A recurring monthly donation is one of the best ways to help:  not only it is a reliable source of funds for the patients, but also an easy way for our supporters to make a difference:  just set it up once, and you are done!

Here are a few rules to keep in mind:

• The initial gift of new recurring donations created on GlobalGiving.org will be matched 1-to-1 up to $200 per donor per project. Eligible recurring donations of $201 or larger will be matched at $200.
• Although donors are required to set up a recurring donation, only the first donation will be matched. 
• To be eligible for matching, the recurring donation must last for at least three months after the initial donation (a minimum of four donations total). So, for example, if you start a new recurring donation this December, keep it active through January, February, and March, then your initial donation from December will be matched.

We are thankful for your support for the patients and wishing you a great holiday season! 

Recently we were able to help Dmitry, a young man from St. Petersburg, who is studying to become a geologist.  His disease first appeared back in 2011, when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.  After numerous cycles of chemotherapy, he needed transplantation of his own stem cells, as well as maintenance therapy with an expensive new drug.  Another option was to undergo transplantation from a donor, but a good match was not found in the donor regsitries around the world. 

Unfortunately, Dima's disease recurred last year.  But this time, a donor search found a few potential donors, and now Dima has a hope that lymphoma will finally be beaten.  Thanks to your donations, we were able to contribute 2,000 euros to the donor search costs.  We are so grateful to our supporters for giving Dima a chance to live! 

If you would like to help more patients like Dima, join us on September 16th during the last Bonus Day of the year.  All donations of $1,000 or less will receive a bonus of 30%.  Mark your calendars and donate early, before the bonus funds run out.  The Bonus Day starts at 9 am Eastern time, or 16:00 Moscow time.  And if you tell your friends, we will have a chance to win extra awards for the most donors. 

Thanks for your support!

In May our project participated in the Bonus day.  A new approach was taken:  while all donations made within a certain period were eligible for the bonus, the percentage was not known until two days later.  We raised the total of $1,807 and the bonus amounted to 25.91%.  Thank you everyone who participated!   And take a note of even better opportunity coming up in July:  on July 15th, as a Superstar project, we will be able to get a 50% match to the donations.  Stay tuned for more information!

So where did we use the money raised?  In March we transferred over $5,600 for donor search for Nikolay, an ambulance driver from Krasnodarsky krai, whose story we shared on our Facebook page.

And recently we transferred $12,425 for the donor search for Anton, a young engineer, who has lived his whole life in Perm, a city in the Urals. Anton is an avid aquarium hobbyist, a builder, and a walking encyclopedia, according to his wife.  They have met when they were both 30, and were very happy together. But just months after the wedding, Anton was diagnosed with a blood disorder: myelodysplastic syndrome, refractory anemia. In the last three years Anton received 10 rounds of chemotherapy and many cycles of less toxic maintenance chemotherapy.  Unfortunately, in June of 2014 he had a relapse.  His only chance to overcome the disease is bone marrow transplant from a donor. Initially, there were no matching donors in the international registry or among his relatives.  Anton had to begin therapy with a very expensive new drug, which exhaused any resources the young family had.  And recently, after another search in the registry, several new potential matching donors were found.  We are hopeful that Anton can now have a chance for transplant and will get his life back soon. 

Thanks for your support, and have a great summer!

In 2014 we were able to provide help to 12 patients who underwent transplantations in St. Petersburg, and we spend over $68,000 on bone marrow donor searches!  In addition, the number of donors who signed up for monthly donations has increased.  Fortunately, even in times of crisis affecting many of our supporters, we were able to continue helping low-income cancer patients with access to life-saving treatments. 

Since January, we have helped 3 young patients with blood cancers.  One of them is 20-year-old Nikita from Moscow. Diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma 4 years ago, he had numerous cycles of chemotherapy, radiation treatment and stem cell transplant, but his disease kept coming back.  Bone marrow transplant from a donor was his only remaining option.  A donor had to be located abroad, as neither of his two brothers was a match. Eventually, a donor was found in the US, and in February Nikita received the bone marrow transplant.  He is now recovering and feeling quite well. 

Would you like to hear more stories like this one?  Then mark your calendars and join us next Wednesday, March 18th, for GlobalGiving Bonus Day!  Each donation to our project (up to $1,000 per donor) will be able to get 30% bonus - but only while the bonus funds last.  So don't delay, and donate early!  The matching starts at 8 am CDT, or 16:00 Moscow time.  And if you tell your friends, we will have a chance to win $1,000 bonus for the most donations, or the most funds raised. 

Many thanks for your kindness,

As we are entering the season of joy, we would like to send our best holiday wishes to our friends around the world who have made our project such a success.  This year our project had crossed $100,000 mark in donations!  Since inception, we have helped 52 patients with paying for donor searches in foreign registries.  These are the 52 lives that were made better by your generosity and kindness. 

I wish I could say we are close to the victory.  However, there is still no progress in growing a registry of native donors in Russia, and the government still denies paying for the donor searches in other countries.  Therefore, it falls to us to help the patients get their health back. 

If you can donate to our project this month, we may be able to win prizes during a month-long Holiday challenge.  Ten best projects will get extra bonuses for the most number of donors and largest amounts raised.  We will very much appreciate your support, as there are still dozens of patients whose lives are at risk due to lack of money. 

Here is one story.  Elena is a 14-year old from a city of Abakan in Siberia. She is a good student and she loves to cook.  When she grows up Elena hopes to become a chef in her own restaurant.  But to achieve her dream, she needs to beat her illness first.  In February 2014 Elena started feeling unwell and her lymph nodes enlarged.  Turned out that she had a rare type of leukemia, which can only be overcome by bone marrow transplant from a donor.  Since Elena has no match in her family, she needs to find one in registries abroad.  Her mom left her job to care for Elena, and her grandparents are retired.  They need our help to be able to pay for the donor search.  Please help Elena and others like her!

Many thanks from everyone in our team!  Have a great New Year!

The latest beneficiaries of your support are two young women, Oksana and Marina.   Oksana is a student from Samara region.  She was initially diagnosed with lymphoma back in 2011.  The treatment eventually brought her into remission, but unfortunately, it only lasted 9 months.  Since then Oksana went through more chemotherapy and transplantation of her own stem cells, but her disease continued to progress.  Now she needs even more difficult treatment - transplant from an unrelated donor, as there is no matching donor in Oksana's family.  Thanks to the extra funds raised during Bonus day in July, we were able to forward 10,000 euros for Oksana's donor search. 

Marina has a very similar story.  She too had a particularly aggressive lymphoma that did not respond well to treatment and recurred several times.  This year she began therapy with a new drug that helped bring her disease under control, and that allowed her to begin considering transplant from a donor to help sustain the results of treatment.  A donor was found in the US, and we hope Marina will proceed to transplantation soon. 

We are very grateful to everyone who has helped these young ladies and many other patients since this project started.   Please consider supporting us again on Wednesday, October 15th, the last Bonus day of the year.  Once again, we will get 30% match on all donations up to $1000, and we have a chance to win additional bonuses - for the most funds raised, as well as for the most participants.  Donate early - the contest starts at 9 am EDT (17:00 Moscow time). 

Thank you for everything you do! 

Some things are enjoyed in moderation.  But when it comes to helping patients with cancer, more money translates into better care and better outcomes.  And we know of a perfect opportunity to stretch your generous donation to even more impressive size.   Join us during Bonus Day on Wednesday, July 16th and see your donation grow 50% more! 

Just once a year Global Giving rewards its "Superstar" projects with an opportunity to earn 50% bonus on all donations that are $1000 or less.  The timing is great, as summer is a traditionally slow season for fundraising, while the patients still need our help just as much as in any other season.  Right now, 50 patients awaiting bone marrow transplants in St. Petersburg cannot pay their bill for bone marrow donor search.  It means that a life-saving transplant could be postponed for some of them and the success of the procedure jeopardized. 

Thanks to you support, this year we already helped seven low-income patients with the costs of bone marrow donor searches.  And we would love to do more, but we need your help.  Russian healthcare does not cover the cost of donor searches outside of Russia, and it's up to us, private donors, to ensure that patients get a chance to live.   The Bonus day starts at 9 am EDT (17:00 Moscow time) on Wednesday, July 16th.  The bonus funds usually run out quickly, so donate early and let your friends know of this opportunity.  Thank you for your support!  

In February we had a fantastic month:  we won an extra $1,000 for having the most donors during the Bonus Day.  Overall, we raised $12,356 in donations and bonuses from 204 people like you. 

We used the money to help two young ladies with the costs of finding their donors in foreign registries. Here are their stories:

Marina is a law student from Yoshkar-Ola.  She was first diagnosed with leukemia when she was in the 5th grade.  She had chemotherapy for nine months, then two more years of maintenance chemotherapy.  She had to quit ballroom dancing  and be schooled at home.  Despite her best efforts, disease returned again in 2009, and then again in 2013.  This is Marina's third recurrence of leukemia.  At this point, only bone marrow transplant gives her a chance of cure.  She underwent procedure on April 4th and is now recovering.

Anastasia lives in Kurgan.  She is a finance professional and loves literature and movies.  In 2011 she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma that frequently affects young people.  Although it is highly curable, Anastasia was one of the few unlucky patients who relapsed.  She is now undergoing chemotherapy in attempt to bring her to remission and undergo transplantation of stem cells.  

We are hoping these two ladies will do well.  Thank you for supporting them in their fight! 

If you would like to participate again in a Bonus Day, it is coming up on May 7th.  All donations (up to $1,000) will be matched 30% by Global Giving.  As usual, there will be extra bonuses for most money raised and the largest number of donors.  Make sure to donate after the Bonus Day starts - at 9 am EDT (17:00 Moscow time). 

Don't forget to tell your friends for even larger impact - and more lives saved.  Thanks!

Valentine's Day is coming up this week!   We would like to take this opportunity to tell our supporters how special they are to us.  And we hope the feeling is mutual! 

Today you can increase your impact by 30% by donating early and getting a bonus match from Global Giving.  The bonus day starts at 9 am ET (or 18:00 Moscow time), and lasts until midnight (or 9 am Moscow time on February 13th), or until the bonus funds run out.  Any donation of $1,000 or less will receive 30% match. 

The money raised will go to some of the neediest leukemia patients in St. Petersburg who are awaiting transplants from unrelated donors. Currently, six of them have not paid the first installment to the donor registry - which means the search was not started.  Since there is usually a very short window in which patients should be transplanted, it is very important to start the donor search as soon as possible. 

You can see complete list of patients and read their stories here:  http://advita.ru/en/

Thanks for your support and feel free to share this report with your friends.  We can always use more volunteer help!

It's time to report on October Bonus day!   During October we raised $9,357 that allowed us to help two cancer patients with the large outstanding bills from the donor registry. 

One of them is Irina, a young woman with degrees in engineering and psychology.  A year ago she was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia/lymphoma.  Bone marrow transplant that she received in April helped reduce her risk of relapse.  She is doing well and recently returned to work.
 
Another patient is Alexander, a single father of two boys, who was diagnosed with leukemia earlier this year.  He is now in remission and waiting for the donor to be found. 

Thank you for helping these patients get the life-saving treatment!  There are two more great opportunities this month to increase the impact of your donation. 

- Year-End Giving challenge:  projects with at least 30 donors and $3,000 in donations in December will be able to compete for 9 prizes ranging from $500 to $3,000. 

- Recurring donation match:  Global Giving will give us the amount of your monthly donation if you donate for 3 consecutive months.   Check out this detailed explanation.  It will be available for the last 12 days of the year only (from December 20 to December 31)!

Thanks again for supporting the cancer patients!  Have a joyful holiday season! 

On October 1st we learned that our project was 95% funded! With the help of the fundraiser campaign in September that brought almost $10,000 we got very close to meeting our project goal of $65,000. Thank you so much for your support!

Three years ago, when we started the project, we were hopeful that with time Russian bone marrow donor registries will grow their donor numbers and become self-reliable. While there was an increase in the number of donors, and a handful of transplants came from the donors within Russia in the last year, Russian registries are still unable to provide donors for the vast majority of the patients. As in previous years, Stefan Morsch registry in Germany supplies most of the donors. Therefore, we made a decision to extend our project goal to $100,000 and continue supporting patients awaiting transplants in St. Petersburg. 

There are currently 44 patients whose transplantations may be delayed due to their inability to pay for donor search.  One of them is a 6-year old Slava from Maikop in South of Russia. He suddenly got sick in January 2013, and after six cycles of harsh chemotherapy achieved remission. However, no one knows how long it will last, and it is imperative that Slava receives stem cell transplant as soon as possible to avoid relapse. 

On October 9th, starting at 8 am Moscow time, the last Bonus Day of the year will offer a great opportunity to get 30% bonus on all donations up to $1,000.  We will be very grateful for your support on this day!   Make sure to donate early to take advantage of bonus funds - they may run out within a few hours.

Thanks again!

In August we passed an impressive mark - reaching 1,000 donations to our project!  We are immensely grateful to everyone who has been so kind and caring and helped people in need get a chance to live. 

Since our last update, we have used donations to the project to help two more patients.  One of them is Alexei from Mordovia.  He is a doting grandfather, a supportive husband and loving father.  Alexei was diagnosed with chronic leukemia 10 years ago.  Since then his family did everything they could to find money for the treatment and medications.  However, bone marrow transplantation was the only curative option.  Thanks to your help, Alexei was able find a matching donor and undergo transplantation.  He is now doing well. 

If you would like to do more for patients like Alexei, you can start your own fundraiser during the month of September.  It can be tied to any event, such as a birthday, anniversary, or tribute to a loved one.  You can even earn a reward from Global Giving - JetBlue tickets, a flip cam, or a Nike messenger bag, if you are one of the top three fundraisers.  In addition, Global Giving will give $3,500 in financial bonus awards to the organizations with the most successful fundraisers.

You can read step-by-step instructions here: http://help.globalgiving.org/s/how-to/m/donate/l/131862-how-to-start-a-globalgiving-fundraiser

Or read fundraiser success stories for inspiration and helpful advice: http://tools.blog.globalgiving.org/2013/08/05/successful-fundraiser-case-studies/

Thank you for everything that you do!

Bonus Day is on Wednesday, June 12th!  Starting at 8 am CT (or 17:00 Moscow time), all donations (less than $1,000 per donor) will be matched by GlobalGiving.  Our projects are ranked "Superstar", which means we get the highest match: 50%.   It's a rare opportunity to multiply your impact, so make sure to participate.  Even a nominal donation will help too - a project with the highest number of donors can get an additional bonus of $1,000. 

Dozens of patients in St. Petersburg currently need help with paying off the bills for bone marrow donor searches.  A few are still raising funds for the first installment that will help initiate the search.  One of these patients is Arcady, a teen who has been fighting leukemia for the last 2 years.  He recently had an early relapse, and bone marrow transplant is his only hope for cure.  His parents earn modest income and their savings were drained during the years of their son's illness. 

Join us on Wednesday and help give hope to Arcady and patients like him. 

Thank you!

Dear Friend,

In March we raised over $8,000 for bone marrow donor searches during a Bonus Day on Global Giving.  We had a record number of donors!  Here is where the money went:

• to 10-year old Nastia with a blood disorder who underwent transplantation on April 26th.
• to 7-year old Andrei who needs bone marrow transplant to overcome resistant type of leukemia.

Thank you so much for your support! We hope to raise even more in the next Bonus Day that is coming up in June (we will be getting a 50% bonus as a Superstar project)!

Stay tuned. :)

Thank you so much for your support this year!  

During 2012 we were able to raise more funds than ever before to help leukemia patients pay for bone marrow donor searches in foreign registries.  As you may know, a number of registered bone marrow donors in Russia is too low to allow finding a complete match.  In fact, this year the first Russian donor was activated in a database at Pavlov State Medical University in St. Petersburg, while hundreds of patients need transplants annually to have a chance to survive. 

Your help made this possible for 17 people - children and adults, men and women. 

If you would like to increase an impact of your donation, consider signing up for recurring donations.  GlobalGiving will match your first donation (up to $100), and there is a chance to win a bonus if enough of us sign up. 

Thank you in advance - and have a wonderful holiday season!

Great news: our project to help patients find bone marrow donors was recently featured in International Innovation magazine, Healthcare edition.  We were selected from hundreds of projects on Global Giving website as an example of grassroots campaign making a difference in their community.  We are very happy that our work and your support  were noticed and appreciated. 

This Wednesday, October 17th, Global Giving is offering another opportunity to increase your impact!  This will be the last Bonus Day this year, and all donations (up to a limit of $1000 per donor) will be matched by a 30% bonus.  The bonuses will be added starting at 12:01 am EDT until the bonus funds run out. 

Thank you so much for all that you do!

Dear Friend,

Raisa is a history student, with a particular interest in archeology.  Last summer, after returning from an expedition, she began feeling unwell.  A visit to a doctor showed a blood test abormality, and soon after, Raisa was shocked to learn that she had leukemia.  Four cycles of chemotherapy put her in remission, but unfortunately, it did not last.  In March 2012 Raisa relapsed, and now she can only have a hope of a cure if she undergoes bone marrow transplant from a donor. Her family does not have a matching donor, which means she needs to search for an unrelated donor from abroad.

Please help Raisa cover the costs of bone marrow donor search in the registry in Germany.  Thank you!

Dear Supporter,

On June 13th our project will get a rare opportunity to receive a 50% bonus to all donations less than $1,000.  As a "Superstar" project we are eligible for the highest bonus match Global Giving is offering.  We are very excited by this opportunity!  Summer is traditionally a slow fundraising season, but our patients need help urgently.  This is why we ask for your support once again. 

Your donations will be used to help patients like a 23-year old Lenura.  She is a young architect from St. Petersburg, fluent in English and Finnish.  When she was 14, she was diagnosed with leukemia for the first time.  Lenura was treated successfully and was in remission for long 9 years.  Shockingly, she had a relapse in fall of 2011.  She now needs bone marrow transplantation from an unrelated donor to have a chance to live. 

Please help us help patients like Lenura.  The bonus will be added to all donations (maximum $1000 per donor) starting with 12:01 am EDT (8:01 am Moscow time).  Matching will last until the bonus fund of $75,000 runs out, or at 11:59 pm EDT. 

Thanks!

Dear Friend,

In March we participated in a Bonus Day and raised the largest amount ever - almost $9,000 in a day!  Once we received the funds, we used them to help five patients with leukemia and blood diseases to make the first installments to the bone marrow donor registry located in Germany so that it could start the donor search for them. 

I just wanted to share with you a story of one of these five patients.  Dima Komarov is 10.  Six years ago, he was first diagnosed with leukemia.  It was a rare kind that combined features of both lymphoblastic and myeloid leukemias.  Although Dima responded to chemotherapy and went into remission for several years, the disease returned at the end of last year.  He then had to travel to St. Petersburg from the south of Russia to get evaluated for bone marrow transplantation.  This is the only city in Russia where bone marrow from unrelated donors is transplanted.  We hope Dima will do well.  Thank you so much for giving him and others a chance!

Dear Supporter,

Since the start of this project, we were able to support six leukemia patients who needed bone marrow transplants.  Thank you very much!  We are now raising funds for an 11-year old Anastasia.  Four years ago she underwent treatment for lymphoma.  Unfortunately, in 2011 she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.  Her only chance to get well is bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor.  We need to help her raise 5,000 euros to pay for bone marrow donor search in a registry in Germany. 

On Wednesday, March 14th, all donations to our project (up to $1,000) will get bonus match from GlobalGiving.org.  This is a great opportunity to let your donation make the most impact.  In addition, GlobalGiving offers two extra bonuses:

• The organization that raises the most funds on Bonus Day will receive an additional $1,000 from GlobalGiving.
• The organization that has the most unique donors on Bonus Day will receive an additional $1,000 from GlobalGiving.

Matching will last until funds run out - so make your donation early in the day! 

Thanks again for your generosity!

Dear Supporter,

We have used donations received during December to help Arsen Arustamyan with paying for a bone marrow donor search.  Arsen is 11 years old.  When he was not even four, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, common childhood cancer.  Since then he and his family went through a rollercoaster of emotions as a remission would be followed by a relapse, again and again.  In September 2011 Arsen was diagnosed with a recurrence.  He now needs to undergo bone marrow transplantation, his only chance for cure.   Thanks to your help, it will become possible. 

Hope you have a great year! 

Dear Friend,

Thanks again for your support for our efforts!  We have used donations received this month to make a payment of $1000 to the bone marrow donor registry to support Arthur Geroev, a young leukemia patient who has been a sole provider for his three younger siblings and a widowed mother.  Arthur successfully underwent bone marrow transplantation from an unrelated donor in late October, and he is doing well.  We hope he will be able to return home soon!

If you would like to help more patients on their way to recovery, consider buying a tribute card this holiday season.  You can make a donation to our project in honor of someone, and your recipient will get a tribute card telling them how much was made in their name. It's an easy and meaningful way to celebrate! 

GlobalGiving.Org offers e-cards and print-at-home cards, making a donation to our project the perfect last-minute holiday gift!  Also, by buying a tribute card, you could help us reach a bonus from GlobalGiving.Org worth as much as $2500. 

Happy holidays! 

Dear supporter,

On October 19, GlobalGiving.org is matching at 30% all online donations up to $1,000 per donor per project!  There is $100,000 available in matching funds starting at 12:01 am EDT until 11:59pm EDT or until matching funds run out.  

In addition to the 30% match, GlobalGiving is offering a $1,000 bonus to the project that raises the most funds that day and a $1,000 bonus to the project that receives donations from the most individual donors!

What is means is that even smallest donation will help us take advantage of this generous offer and stretch your donation to help more cancer patients.  Here is why it is important to help:  currently, our partner, Advita fund in St. Petersburg, has 29 patients who need help with raising funds for bone marrow donor searches.  This is one of the largest charities in Russia.  But even for them, it is difficult to foot the bill for all the needy patients.  In fact, last year they were able to pay full cost of only 10 bone marrow donor searches.  The rest of the money needs to come from community to help the patients fighting leukemia and other serious blood disorders have a chance to live.   For certain types of diseases, bone marrow transplants are the only curative option. 

Please join us this Wednesday and help us give hope to the cancer patients!

Dear supporter,

Thanks to your help, we were able to transfer $2,500 to the bone marrow registry in Germany to help Artur Geroev with paying for the donor search.  Artur is 29 years old and suffers from acute myeloid leukemia, a difficult type of leukemia to treat, for which bone marrow transplant is the only chance of cure.  Artur has three younger siblings and a mom to support.  His father passed away years ago.  Without your help, it would have been very difficult for him to raise the money.

Thanks again for your kindness!

Dear supporter,

On October 19, GlobalGiving.org is matching at 30% all online donations up to $1,000 per donor per project!  There is $100,000 available in matching funds starting at 12:01 am EDT until 11:59pm EDT or until matching funds run out.  

In addition to the 30% match, GlobalGiving is offering a $1,000 bonus to the project that raises the most funds that day and a $1,000 bonus to the project that receives donations from the most individual donors!

What is means is that even smallest donation will help us take advantage of this generous offer and stretch your donation to help more cancer patients.  Here is why it is important to help:  currently, our partner, Advita fund in St. Petersburg, has 29 patients who need help with raising funds for bone marrow donor searches.  This is one of the largest charities in Russia.  But even for them, it is difficult to foot the bill for all the needy patients.  In fact, last year they were able to pay full cost of only 10 bone marrow donor searches.  The rest of the money needs to come from community to help the patients fighting leukemia and other serious blood disorders have a chance to live.   For certain types of diseases, bone marrow transplants are the only curative option. 

Please join us this Wednesday and help us give hope to the cancer patients!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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My name is Clinton Misamore.  I serve as the Field Program Officer for GlobalGiving.  Over the past three months I have been visiting GlobalGiving projects throughout Russia.  On June 2nd, 2011, I had the unique opportunity to visit with the Advita Fund country staff.   I was also fortunate enough to be given a tour of the medical research and treatment center where Advita Fund works in collaboration with the hospitals doctors and nurses to help treat sick patients.

After speaking with Advita Fund USA as well as their country staff in St. Petersburg, it was clear that the work this organization is engaging in comes from the heart and produces significant deliverables for the cancer victims.  In addition to sourcing bone marrow donors, Advita Fund also engages in a range of other high impact activities including but not limited to the following:

- Buying medications for cancer patients

-Donating supplies to the hospitals

-Subsiziing patient treatment not covered by insurance 

-Paying accommodation expenses for out-of-town patients 

-Altering the mentality of how sick people are perceived

-Passionately improving livelihoods-- one by one

The work that Advita Fund is implementing is of great value.  It was an amazing personal experience to find out more about the impact that these bone marrow transplates can have and I was extremely pleased to see just how developed Advita Fund truly is.  They are a well established organization and highly regarded within the NGO community in Russia regarding cancer treatment.  Thanks again to Marina, Pavel, and everyone else who made this visit possible.  GlobalGiving is proud to be in collaboration with such a top notch organization and we look forward to working with you in the years to come.  

Dear Friend,

We've used the money we raised during June's matching donation campaign to help Andrei Arkhireev from Novgorod who urgently needs to find a bone marrow donor.  He has been ill with acute myeloid leukemia since July 2010, and transplantation is his only chance to live.  Thanks again for your support of cancer patients!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Дорогие друзья,
те пожертвования, которые мы собрали в июне, были переведены на поиск донора для Андрея Архиреева.  Уже год Андрей проходит лечение от острой миелоидной лейкемии, и пересадка костного мозга - это его единственный шанс выжить. Спасибо Вам за поддержку нуждающихся пациентов!

Dear Friend,

We are excited to let you know that our partner in Russia, Advita Fund, was recently visited by GlobalGiving.Org Field Officer, Clint Misamore.  While there, he was able to meet with the volunteers and management of Advita Fund, as well as visit nearby Raisa Gorbacheva Hematology & Transplantation Institute where the majority of unrelated bone marrow transplants take place, and meet a few young patients.  His story and photos will be posted soon in "In The Field" section. 

And on Wednesday, June 15th, there will be a great opportunity to support our efforts to help patients undergo life-saving bone marrow transplants!  On that day, GlobalGiving.org will be matching all donations at 30% up to $1,000 per donor per project while funds last. There will be $75,000 available in matching funds. And there is a $1,000 bonus for the project that raises the most funds and another $1,000 bonus for the project that has the most unique donors!  Please help our patients get a chance to live!

***********************************

Дорогие друзья,

В прошлую пятницу, 10 июня, Clint Misamore, представитель GlobalGiving.Org, посетил нашего партнера - фонд АдВита в Петербурге.  Клинт смог не только встретиться с волонтерами и руководителями фонда в офисе, но и посетить близлежащий институт Раисы Горбачевой, где и проводятся пересадки костного мозга, и увидеть юных пациентов, ожидающих своей очереди.  Его отчет о поездке вскоре будет опубликован в разделе "In The Field".

А в среду, 15 июня, наш проект на сайте GlobalGiving.org сможет получить бонус в 30% на любую сумму пожертвования (до 1000 долларов) для пациентов, нуждающихся в оплате поиска донора костного мозга.  GlobalGiving.org выделил 75 тысяч долларов на бонусы, плюс дополнительные суммы в 1000 долларов для проектов, которые наберут наибольшую сумму пожертвований в этот день и получат пожертвования от наибольшего количества участников.  Пожалуйста, поддержите наш проект и помогите нашим пациентам получить шанс на жизнь!

Dear Friend,

Thanks to your invaluable support, we raised another $2,000 that we used to help a two year old Farkhod from Tajikistan.  The money will go to the bone marrow donor registry in Germany where a search for a matching donor will be conducted.  We hope a donor for Farkhod will be found very soon!

As important as it is to help children get a chance to enjoy a full, long and wondrous life, supporting moms is also something that is very close to heart for many of us.  When a child loses his mom, his whole world collapses...  Especially so when a child is ill and dependent on his mom for his wellbeing.  

Natasha Kovaleva is a 27-year-old single mom. Her daughter is 6 and has diabetes.  Five years ago, Natasha was diagnosed with leukemia.  She got into remission and was cancer-free for four years, but in February 2010 her disease returned.  Her only chance to live now is to receive a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. 

If you would like to support Natasha and her daughter in their fight against leukemia, you can donate to our project or sign up for a recurring donation.  A recurring donation is easy to set up and automatically goes to your credit card each month so you can help support patients hoping to undergo transplantation without having to worry about making separate donations each month.

By signing up for a recurring donation now, you can help us get an additional $1,500 through GlobalGiving’s Recurring Donation Campaign!  We need at least ten new recurring donations before the end of the day Friday, May 20 EDT in order to be eligible for additional grants between $500 and $1500.

Sign up for a recurring donation here: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/bone-marrow-donor-searches/?show=recurring.

Thank you for your support!  Happy Mother's Day!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Дорогие друзья,

благодаря Вашей неоценимой помощи, нам удалось собрать и перевести 2000 долларов на счет двухлетнего Фархода Садыкова в регистре доноров костного мозга в Германии. Мы очень надеемся, что донор будет найден в ближайшее время!

Помогать детям получить шанс прожить долгую, счастливую, радостную жизнь очень важно и нужно!  Но заслуживают не меньшего внимания и истории мам, нуждающихся в помощи.  Мама - это все для ребенка.  Когда умирает мама, рушится целый мир - особенно когда ребенок нездоров и нуждается в уходе...

Наташе Ковалевой 27 лет.  Она одинокая мама.  Ее дочери 6 лет и она больна диабетом. Пять лет назад Наташа заболела лейкемией.  После выхода в ремиссию было несколько лет жизни, свободной от тревог и волнений, но в феврале 2010 года болезнь вернулась.  И теперь спасти Наташу может только пересадка костного мозга от неродственного донора. 

Если Вы хотите помочь Наташе оплатить поиск донора, Вы можете сделать пожертвование через наш проект или подписаться на ежемесячные пожертвования.  При ежемесячном пожертвовании, одна и та же сумма будет автоматически сниматься с Вашей кредитной карты - это очень легкий и удобный способ помочь таким пациентам, как Наташа и Фарход!

Если Вы подпишетесь на ежемесячные пожертвования сейчас, то Вы можете помочь нам получить дополнительный бонус в $1,500 через специальную программу сайта GlobalGiving - Recurring Donation Campaign.  Необходимо, чтобы подписалось не менее 10 человек до 20 мая, чтобы получить возможность выиграть бонусы в $500 и $1500.

Здесь можно подписаться на ежемесячные пожертвования: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/bone-marrow-donor-searches/?show=recurring.

Спасибо!  Happy Mother's day!

Dear Friend,
we have recently transferred $2,000 to help Tanya Suchkova, a young Ewing's sarcoma sufferer, pay for the bone marrow transplant.  Thanks to your help, she underwent transplantation on March 2!  Tanya is now recovering and feeling well.   Your contribution helped Tanya get access to a lifesaving procedure she would not be able to afford otherwise.  Thank you!

However, there are others who urgently need bone marrow transplants but are unable to pay for the search for the donor. A two year old Farkhod from Tajikistan has a genetic disorder that only bone marrow transplantation can fix. 

On March 16, GlobalGiving.org is matching at 30% all online donations up to $1,000 per donor per project!  There is $75,000 available in matching funds on March 16.  Once these matching funds are used, no more matching funds will be applied.  In addition to the 30% match, GlobalGiving is offering a $1,000 bonus to the project that raises the most funds that day and a $1,000 bonus to the project that receives donations from the most individual donors!

Please donate to our project and support the patients awaiting bone marrow transplants!  Your help is urgently needed and much appreciated!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Дорогие друзья,

недавно мы перечислили 2000 долларов, чтобы помочь оплатить поиск донора костного мозга для Тани Сучковой, болеющей саркомой Юинга.  Благодаря нашей помощи, Таня прошла пересадку в ночь со 2 на 3 марта.  Теперь Таня восстанавливается и чувствует себя хорошо.  Ваша помощь помогла Тане получить доступ к процедуре, спасшей ее жизнь.  Спасибо огромное!

Но на очереди еще многие пациенты, чьи шансы на жизнь зависят от того, насколько быстро начнется поиск донора.  Так ждет нашей помощи двухлетний Фарход из Таджикистана.  У него редкое генетическое заболевание.  Если не спасти его сейчас, через несколько месяцев может быть уже поздно...

16 марта (с 8 утра 16 марта до 8 утра 17 марта по московскому времени) появится замечательная возможность увеличить эффект Ваших пожертвований: к любому пожертвованию (от 1 до 1000 долларов США) сайт GlobalGiving.Org добавит 30%!

Это значит, что Ваше пожертвование в 10 долларов превратится в 13, а пожертвование в 100 долларов - в 130, и поиск доноров для нуждающихся пациентов начнется раньше, что увеличит их шансы на успех!
Кроме того, те проекты, которые соберут наибольшую сумму или в которых будет участвовать наибольшее количество жертвователей, получат дополнительные призовые суммы.

На все проекты спонсоры выделяют 75 тысяч долларов в качестве бонуса. Как только деньги закончатся, начисление бонусов прекратится.  Если Вы готовы поддержать наших пациентов, пожалуйста, сделайте пожертвование именно 16 марта, причем как можно раньше!  Спасибо!

Dear friend,

Earlier this month we told you about Tanya S, who needed a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor.  We are happy to report that a matching donor for Tanya was found!  It also means Tanya urgently needs to pay 10,000 euros to the registry for collection of bone marrow from the donor.  Please help us help Tanya undergo transplantation as soon as possible to maximize her chances in her fight against cancer. 

For now, Tanya is preparing for the next chemotherapy cycle.  She hopes to celebrate the New Year at home, with her family. 

Happy New Year!  May all your wishes come true!

~~~~~~

Дорогие друзья,

в начале декабря мы сообщили вам, что часть собранных денег была передана на поиск донора костного мозга для Тани Сучковой.  К счастью, подходящий донор нашелся!  Но теперь Тане нужно срочно заплатить 10 тысяч евро за забор костного мозга у донора.  Помогите нам помочь Тане пройти трансплантацию как можно скорее - от этого зависят ее шансы победить болезнь!

А пока Таня готовится к следующему курсу химиотерапии. И надеется встретить Новый год дома, в кругу семьи.

С Новым годом!  Счастья и исполнения желаний!

Dear friends,

we are happy to report that we used the money raised during September and October to contribute to bone marrow donor search for Tanya S., a young Ewing's sarcoma sufferer, who has had disease recurrence since 2004.  In December 2009 she had a second relapse and after completing chemotherapy, she will need bone marrow transplant to keep disease from coming back again.

We also used proceeds to make a payment to start donor search for Igor Sh. who has myelodysplastic syndrome, requiring ongoing blood transfusions.  Since Igor is not responding to medical therapy, bone marrow transplantation is his only remaining option. 

Thank you very much for helping these patients get another chance to live!

Дорогие друзья,

мы рады Вам сообщить, что деньги, собранные нами в сентябре и октябре 2010 года пошли на оплату поиска донора костного мозга для Тани Сучковой из пос. Шушары под Петербургом, болеющей саркомой Юинга с 2004 года.  В декабре 2009 года у нее произошел второй рецидив и после завершения химиотерапии ей потребуется пересадка костного мозга, для того, чтобы предотвратить возвращение болезни.

Мы также перевели часть денег на поиск донора для Игоря Шитика, болеющего миелодиспластическим синдромом, при котором требуются постоянные переливания крови. Поскольку Игорь не отвечает на терапию медицинскими препаратами, пересадка костного мозга от донора - его единственный вариант лечения.

Спасибо Вам огромное за поддержку наших пациентов! 

Дорогие друзья,

c 12 октября (до 21 октября, если фонды не закончатся ранее) ко всем пожертвованиям, сделанным на сайте Globalgiving.org, организаторы будут добавлять бонус от 30 до 50%.  Также будут доступны дополнительные бонусы за наибольшее количество жертвователей и наибольшую собранную сумму.  Все собранные средства будут переведены в регистр Морша на поиск доноров костного мозга для наших пациентов!  Огромное спасибо всем, кто поддержит проект и наших пациентов!  

Наш проект находится по ссылке: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/bone-marrow-donor-searches/

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Dear friends,

Starting on October 12, www.GlobalGiving.org is matching all donations at 30%, 40%, or 50%. The match percentage is based on the size of the donation.

Donation Size  –>  Percentage Match

$10 – $499   –>  30%

$500 – $999  –>  40%

$1,000 – $2,500   — >  50%

There is $100,000 available in matching funds. The campaign will run until Oct 21 or until matching funds run out.

In addition to the match, GlobalGiving is offering a $1,000 bonus to the project that raises the most funds between Oct 12-21 and a $1,000 bonus to the project that receives donations from the most individual donors!

Please join this great opportunity to help your money do even more good for the cancer patients!  Our project is posted here: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/bone-marrow-donor-searches/

Thank you!

It is with GREAT PLEASURE that we proudly announce — WE DID IT!

With your help and generosity, we successfully raised $4,909 on GlobalGiving’s September Open Challenge— that's $909 more than the $4,000 threshold goal!

This means that our organization now has a long-term presence on GlobalGiving’s website!

You Have made this an incredible campaign. 142 generous backers made donations ranging from $10 to $300. Hundreds of you graciously forwarded our messages and posts on social media platforms, giving strong testament to the notion that online fundraising networks work! And, most powerfully, you've given all of us at Advita Fund USA great confidence that our project, Bone Marrow Donor Searches is vital for our community.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!