Irina Krivets is only nine years old, two of which she fiercely fought for her life. She was diagnosed with a terrible disease - acute lymphocytic leukemia. Since August of 2007 she is undergoing treatment at Ohmatdet’s Division of Hematology and Oncology. This little girl has already lived through two long courses of chemotherapy (seven months each), two courses of radiation, and an autologous bone marrow transplant surgery.

First course, despite many difficulties along the way, was completed successfully. Everyone was hoping the disease has receded, but in December of 2008 Irina had an early relapse of leukemia with infiltration of central nervous system. She was prescribed therapy according to an accepted protocol used at Ohmatdet, which included a course of intense chemotherapy followed by an autologous transplant.

Thanks to generous people all over the world, Irina's family was able to collect 63,000 euro. After intense treatment at Ohmatdet, Irina's parents took their daughter to Schneider Children's Medical Center in Petach-Tikva, Israel where Irina could get total body irradiation (something not done in Ukraine). In July of 2009 she has undergone an autologous transplant surgery. Everything was going well - great hospital, attentive medical personnel, kind people who generously offered Irina's family a place to stay while in Israel, and finally Irina's long-awaited return to Kiev. Everyone was overjoyed Irina was able to endure and recover from such difficult surgery.

Upon Irina's return to Ukraine, her condition was constantly monitored at Ohmatdet, where she had her blood tested every two weeks. In December, half a year since the surgery, she was going to go back to Israel for a check up. Irina's test results from October 30 still indicated all was good, but on November 12 Irina was back in Ohmatdet with 95% of affected cells. Doctors immediately diagnosed her with a bone-marrow relapse (first one was a relapse with infiltration of central nervous system)

Now Irina needs to undergo courses of supporting chemotherapy at Ohmatdet.

In spite of massive number of affected cells in November, Irina's body gave into treatment and she was able to enter remission. Everyone was hoping and praying for this to happen, because only in remission Irina could hope for another chance of survival. Her only chance now is a bone marrow transplant from a donor. Currently, the main concern is finding a donor and collecting the necessary sum for the transplant.

Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, the hospital where Irina had her first transplant, agreed to perform the surgery. Their initial estimate is 115,000 USD, which includes the cost of the transplant, search for a donor (from 1440 USD), as well as harvesting and transporting of bone marrow (30,000 USD).

We are urgently asking to help this family financially. They just finished paying off what they owed for the past treatment and now they are facing new colossal expenses for Irina's upcoming surgery and there are only three months before the surgery needs to take place. Please help despairing parents save their daughter. There might not be another chance to help Irina.

Children should not die because their parents cannot afford the treatment.

More information about Irina can be found at donor.org.ua. We'll be adding news, posting documents, and uploading new photographs.

— December 24, 2009.