05/12/2023
Hello, dear friends. My name is Svetlana Potapova, I'm the mother of Stepan Potapov 5 y.o. We're from a small Russian town .
In 2020 my 2 year son was diagnosed with neuroblastoma (very aggressive pediatric cancer). He had partly undergone the treatment in Russia and then we departed to Germany to complete his therapy course. After the treatment was over, we were very happy. My son had been recovering and started to look like a normal healthy child.
But in two months after the treatment completion a relapse has happened. And my dear boy was forced to struggle against this heavy disease once again. At present he finished the full anti-relapse treatment in Germany. But there is still a small lesion in his humerus. And we just couldn’t leave it as it was because it increases the risk of recurrence. So we addressed to doctors’ team in the USA, at Penn State Children’s Hospital (PA), who do research on neuroblastoma treatment with DFMO medication, which demonstrated good efficiency against neuroblastoma relapse. Stepan was enrolled into study and in August this year we started to take DFMO combined with chemotherapy medication. We still live in Germany and take this medicine here. But every 3 months during the nearest 2 years of DFMO-therapy we have to visit the USA for interim medical examination at Penn State Children’s Hospital and also to get a dose of medicine for another 3 months.
Having been staying in Germany for the whole 3 years without work permits makes it very complex for our family to survive financially. This situation forces us to appeal for your kind help and support for me and Stepan. Round-trip flight for me and my son costs about 2000 $ as there are no direct flights. Unfortunately, during the period of 3 years treatment our savings have been exhausted. And we have no possibility to buy tickets for a next travel scheduled on the beginning of January 2024. It's so hard to realise that treatment continuation depends on money again. Stepan means a whole life and a whole world for us. And now as never before we must fight and beat the disease so it would be defeated totally and never come back.
That’s why I'm begging you to help us with your charity contributions to cover the cost of tickets for us. Most importantly we ask for you guys to keep Stepan in your thoughts and prayers.
Thank you very much for you attention and support.
Pay Pal details for transfer: cvetanaku_2007@yahoo.com