Help Olena in her fight against cancer

Hi everyone,

I have created this fundraising campaign on behalf of my friend Olena Ustenko.

In November 2017, She was consulted at Kyiv National Cancer Institute (KNCI) for the chest tumor where she was diagnosed the right breast cancer of a very aggressive form (with HER2++ hyperexpression). The tumor size was 2.5 cm, with metastasis in the nearest axillary lymph node.

It was a shock for her, as she is still a young woman of only 40 years old, and she has two children – a son of 14 years old and a daughter of 8 years old. She didn’t know how to tell my children about the disease, how to grow them with the thought of having no future.

She was prescribed neoadjuvant polychemotherapy according to FAC (endoxane + fluorouracil + doxorubicin) at KNCI. And She was afraid of the chemotherapy consequences and how will she survive it, and the principal question – where to take money for it?

By the grace of God, this issue was resolved positively. Thanks to relatives, friends, neighbors, colleagues and unfamiliar people, who became aware of her disaster, she managed to collect some money for purchasing medicines for 4 chemotherapy courses and the subsequent surgical operation.

As a result of chemotherapy, the tumor decreased to 0.7 cm, which made it possible to perform the operation. And She underwent the surgical operation – mastectomy according to Madden – at KNCI on April 19, 2018. As a result, the right breast and nearest 11 lymph nodes were completely removed.

Currently, Olena is passing the postoperative recovery, and the attending physician at KNCI has already appointed further treatment – a new chemotherapy, to neutralize the possible remaining tumor cells with HER2++ hyperexpression to prevent the disease recurrence.

She was prescribed Herceptin 440 mg (trastuzumab, Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Switzerland). The price of one bottle of the medicine is approximately 49,000 UAH (that is ~ 1,530 EUR, or 1,950 USD). Using donated funds she can start treatment and undergo the first chemotherapy course. But Olena should undergo another 16 therapy courses with this medicine within a year. Thanks to loyalty programs provided by pharmacies, she must buy only 11 bottles of Herceptin, after which the remaining quantity of the medicine can be obtained by her free of charge.

To purchase the medicine, Olena needs 500,000 UAH (~ 18,000 USD, or 15,500 EUR) – this sum is beyond her strength. Unfortunately, no one of her relatives, collages and friends have such money. She hasn’t been working for 4 months on medical grounds. Unfortunately, we don’t have health insurance or policies in Ukraine, and it’s impossible to get into the government assistance program.

The current situation compels Olena to ask for help to all not indifferent people for whom the “value for life” and the “family” are not empty words. I ask everyone who reads this appeal to help my friend in raising funds to continue further treatment and transfer any feasible donation of funds. She do want to live and bring up her children and their children then. So, each of your contributions will solve Olena's life and give her the opportunity to be with her family.

Thank you for helping my friend.