Alla got her osteosarcoma after she fell in a garden walking with her grandmother. There were rotten logs there, and one of them broke. The girl fell and hit her hip. Osteosarcoma often starts like this – with a seemingly harmless bruise, which launches the division of cancer cells inherent in the organism.
Photo: Sergey Kiselev
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Prosthesis of Confidence
// Alla was operated on credit
The girl is 12. She has osteosarcoma of the femur, or simply cancer. To let the girl walk without bone metastases spreading all over her organism, on Tuesday her bone and joint were replaced with an endoprosthesis, which can grow together with her. The distributors of the prosthesis gave it to Alla without asking the upfront money and without waiting for the Russian Aid Fund to collect the money. They are sure that the money will be found eventually. It’ll always be found. For all. As far as we know, it’s the first time the charity chain has been built as it is to be – basing on trust. It’s only necessary to justify it.
On Monday Alla came to Moscow with her parents from the town of Murom to be operated. While the mother drew up the documents needed for hospitalization, the girl sat with her father on a bench at the entrance of the oncological center and told her simple story. How did it happen that she got the osteosarcoma? She was walking with her grandmother in a garden near a spring. There were ever-wet and rotten logs there. One of them broke. The girl fell and hit her thigh. The leg hurt for several days, then it got better, but three weeks later the pain resumed. Osteosarcoma often starts like this – with a seemingly harmless bruise, which doesn’t cause the disease, rather, it launches the division of cancer cells inherent in the organism. There was no specialist in the local hospital, and the girl was taken to a larger town of Vladimir. There, a shot was taken and sent to Moscow – the doctors thought it might be cancer. In Moscow oncology was diagnosed. Then chemotherapy was carried out. In Vladimir it was done once again. The girl had to undergo nine courses totally. Of course, she felt sick after each of them, and in Vladimir it was even worse than in Moscow.
Alla doesn’t seem to feel put out about her osteosarcoma. She’s from the new generation of those sick. Cancer doesn’t appear a catastrophe to her. She thinks it’s a trifle you shouldn’t pay much attention to.
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For those who are encountering the Russian Aid Fund for the first time
The Russian Aid Fund was founded in 1996 to assistant the authors of desperate letters sent to Kommersant. We verify the letters with the help of local authorities, then publish the letters in Kommersant, Domovoi magazine and on the site www.rusfond.ru. If you decide to help, you will receive the banking details of the authors of the letters, and the rest is up to you. You just help you help. This approach has been popular with our readers. More than $8.4 million has been collected. We also organize relief efforts during national catastrophes, for 53 families of the miners who died in the Zyryanovskaya Mine in Kuzbass, 57 families of the policemen who burned to death in Samara, 153 families of the victims of explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk, 118 families of the sailors who died on the submarine Kursk, 52 families of the hostages who died in the seizure of the performance of Nord Ost, 39 families of those who died in the Moscow Metro on February 6, 2004, 100 families who suffered losses in Beslan. The Fund is the winner of the Silver Archer award.
The Russian Aid Fund
Address: P.O. Box 50, 125252 Moscow, Russia
www.rusfond.ru
e-mail: rfp@kommersant.ru
Telephone: +7 (095) 943-9135
Telephone/fax: +7 (095) 158-6904
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Her father can tell you a more interesting story. Regardless of the fact that he’s a driver and can hardly be a good story-teller. To him, it’s a miracle that his daughter has been treated for cancer, and there has been improvement. He feels really nervous waiting for the operation. He went on leave for a week and came here. There was no need in it but he believes he must sit and wait at the operating room. He has to live at a bus terminal near one of the underground stations. Every evening his fellow drivers from the town of Murom come here and let Alla’s father spend the night in their buses. He thinks it’s odd that everyone helps his daughter and him. He can’t believe it.
“Do you think the money will be found?” he asks fearfully looking me in the eye.
“Why should you worry?” I try to comfort him. “Your prosthesis is here. The operation will be performed. Your daughter will be all right for sure. It’s the Russian Aid Fund that needs to bother itself with collecting the money.”
But he still doesn’t believe in what appears natural to me – people’s solidarity. He feels another reason must be found that could convince those who have never seen his daughter to donate some money.
“You know, while Alla’s been here, in Moscow, she won a Russian language contest. She wrote a fine essay,” he says.
“Really?” I ask the girl, “What did you write about?”
“About my life,” the girl replies squinting, “About me going to school at seven, about the first day there, the teacher, the things I learnt.”
“And then?”
“Then about me as I’m 12. About my going to my Granny and walking there with her.”
“OK. And then?”
“And then about me at 17. I’ll finish school, enter a veterinary academy, because I want to be a vet. Then about me at 30. I’ll work in the town’s animal hospital. I’ll be married, and I’ll have children probably. Two children, I guess. And then I’ll be 50. I’ll have grandchildren. I will play with them and take care of them.”
The girl has no doubt that she’ll breeze through this all, just the way she wrote about it in her essay.
“Did you mention osteosarcoma in you essay?” I ask her.
“No,” the girl is truly surprised to hear this question, “It’s an essay about life. Why should I write about osteosarcoma? It’s a different matter.”
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818.000 roubles needed to rescue Alla Bayanova, 12!
June 17 Alla Bayanova was operated in Moscow’s Blokhin Russian Oncological Research Center. Surgeon Aslan Dzampaev says, “An American endoprosthesis was implanted in the girl’s leg. It’s a perfect variant, because she will grow up. During the operation we faced some difficulty: The organism, which got weaker after the chemotherapy, badly reacted to the natural hemorrhage. But all un all, it was success. Now Alla will have to get through the rehabilitation period: chemotherapy courses and therapeutic physical training.”
It’s the first time in the 12 years of our practice that such sort of thing happens. The operation has been performed, the prosthesis has been implanted, but no money has been paid yet. The parents have a debt now, and they won’t be able to pay it off themselves. We have never worked on credit, our readers usually payoff other people’s debts. They give money before an operation. When our experts found out more details of Alla’s case, doctors assured us that there was some time left, “The four courses of chemotherapy gave good results, the turmor got smaller, there are no metastases now.” We received an invoice from the distributor of the endoprosthesis and told them we’ll publish this article. Usually, it takes a month and a half to make a prosthesis, and the distributor was due to make it right after the article appeared in the press. We agreed upon the terms. And suddenly the doctors raised the alarm and urged that the operation be carried out immediately, “We can’t postpone it.” Surprisingly, we learnt that the prosthesis was delivered, and he was here, in Moscow already. The distributor had ordered the prosthesis in advance taking account of our two-year successful cooperation. The girl is really lucky, everything is OK.
Dear friends, we rely upon you. The American endoprosthesis costs 1.08 mln roubles. As usual, our permanent partner, the Kapital investment group, will donate 262.000 roubles (see the details at www.rusfond.ru). So, another 818.000 roubles is needed. Donations in roubles can be transferred to the account of Tatyana Bayanova, Alla’s mother, with Sberbank, or to the distributor’s account. You can find all information you need at the Fund www.rusfond.ru.
Russian Aid Fund experts
Valery Panyushkin, specially for Russian Aid Fund
All the Article in Russian as of June 20, 2008
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