Help Children Fight Cancer

Although our work has an international scope, we are initially concentrating on providing aid in the country of Ukraine.

      Ukraine is a state in Eastern Europe, bounded on the north by Belarus, on the north and east by the Russian Federation, on the west by Poland and Slovakia, on the southwest by Hungary, Rumania, and Moldova, and on the south by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Ukraine is a beautiful country, but unfortunately the world's worst nuclear reactor disaster occurred these at the Chernobyl Power Station on April 26, 1986. Thirty-one people died at the time, and 10,900 sq. miles of land and 1.7 million people were exposed to radiation. It's not known how many of the estimated 200,000 people involved in the clean-up operation died following the disaster, as no systematic records were kept.

      A large increase in the incidence of cancer has occurred among people who were young children and adolescents at the time of the accident and who lived in the most contaminated areas of Ukraine. This was due to the high levels of radioactive iodine released from the Chernobyl reactor in the early days after the accident. Radioactive iodine was deposited in pastures eaten by cows, these then concentrated it in their milk which was subsequently drunk by children.

     According to US scientists the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl has produced the biggest group of cancer victims ever from a single incident. Researchers predict that the number of cancers among children is sure to rise further in years to come.

      At the present day, about 1000 Ukrainian children aged 0 - 18 years are becoming aware that they have malignant tumors annually. The National Institute for Cancer provides therapy every year for about 300 patients (213 patients with solid neoplasm). The therapy is taken using modern therapy schemes and includes chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgical removal of a neoplasm. The National Institute for Cancer also performs at least 250 complex surgeries annually. The five-year survival rate of children is about 56 percent, compared to at least 70 percent of patients who make a complete recovery worldwide. This difference is caused by insufficient public health funding. The public financing covers only 50 percent of the medication needs, and during the last three years no budgetary funds were allocated for reagents' and equipment, which endangers the possibility of treatment protocols.

      The goal of “Hope To Life” is to assist children with cancer undergoing treatment when other financial sources of assistance have been denied or exhausted. Most of our children have Embrional rhabdomyosarcoma, Neuroblastoma, Nasophareal, Osteosarcoma, Angiosarcoma and other form of cancer.

      The “Hope To Life” vision is to reach every family affected by childhood cancer and to enhance the quality of life for these children and their families by providing financial assistance and compassionate support programs while advocating for increased research funds and raising public awareness.

     “Hope To Life“ is affiliated with some of the foremost domestic and international foremost pediatric oncology centers. Our partner in the United States is University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). All necessary medical treatments for children will be provided by UCLA. List of international partners includes the National Institute Of Cancer Of Ukraine.