Outstanding people of Ukraine supported the charity meeting “Tree of life”

   Presentation of a new project, the charity meeting "Tree of life" was held in Kiev. The project is aimed to support children's oncology department of the National institute of cancer. 
   The charity meeting was organized upon an initiative of the National institute of cancer, the fund "Crab" which gives help to cancer patients, and with the assistance of Rinat Ahmetov's "Development of Ukraine" charity fund. 
   While giving a speech at the ceremony of the presentation of "Tree of life",Igor Schepotin, director of the National institute of cancer said that real disaster is when children die, everything else in life are little worries. He added that children's department of their institute is top-priority. Everything is mobilized for the rescue of children in extreme situations.
   According to the words of R.Ahmetov, director of the fund "Development of Ukraine", the foundation gladly supported the initiative of gathering the charity meeting. Rinat Ahmetov said that every day people apply for help to his fund. These people are small children as well as adults. Many charity providers help but if they unite, they will be able to do more. He said that they are ready to cooperate with politicians, community, doctors, just with all people not indifferent to the trouble. A.Zabolotniy mentioned that when they started the project "Cancer is treatable" more than three years ago, Rinat Leonidovich told that he was asking doctors all the time if cancer is the verdict or not, and always he got the answer "no". It meant for him that his task is to defeat cancer. 
   Raisa Bogatireva, vice prime minister and healthcare minister, accentuated that implication of the fund "Development of Ukraine" to the charity meeting "Tree of life" makes words "cancer is not a verdict" not just a motto for doctors but also an "entrance ticket" into the future for children ill with cancer. 
   R.Bogatireva said that they get this "ticket" due to the charity providers who gathered there. These people make direct contribution to this project. She said that the public organization "Crab" which was created by the parents of children ill with cancer, is the guarantee that not even a small scintilla of doubt will arise.

   Fund raising for buying modern module endoprotheses as the alternative for amputation of children's limbs was on the agenda of the first charity meeting. 
Larisa Lavrenyuk, manager of the public organization "Crab", mentioned that the most important task is to help a child to survive but another important task is to improve child's quality of life. Sometimes parents have to collect a vast amount of money. When they unite, they will be able to solve global problems, for instance, buying a set of instruments for fixture of endoprotheses. She said they have only one such a set in Ukraine now. It travels from town to town and from one hospital to another. It leads to epiphenomenon, repeated operations. The cost of such a set is one million hrivnas. L.Lavrenyuk said that they initiated gathering of the charity meeting to solve such global problems together and they believe that they will manage.
   Ustin Maltsev, head of Kherson charity fund said that people from different spheres of business gathered to solve the problem but they are united by the same principle - they want to support and to be useful in this charitable act. People come not only from Kiev but also from all parts of the country. Joining together efforts is the only mechanism that will help our society to solve urgent tasks quickly, systematically and in a quality manner. 
   Charity providers, friends and partners of the project were rewarded at the ceremony of presentation. Among them were Vladimir Popadyuk, world-famous violinist, singers Gaitana and Ruslana, painter Nikas Safronov, TV presenter Dasha Malahova and other famous people. 
    Information: Charity meeting "Tree of life" is the initiative that aims to unite beneficiaries: politicians, businessmen, experts, sportsmen, culture and art representatives who are ready to take part in solving challenging problems of ill children who come to oncology department from all over the country.
Members of the meeting will take part annually in the settlement of one of the vital questions. The task that the charity meeting sets for 2012 is raising funds for buying modern module endoprotheses that are an alternative to limb amputation in the whole world (one set costs 200 to 400 thousand hrivnas).
   About 25 operations that save a limb are made annually in the department of children's oncology in the National institute of cancer. One million hrivnas that is committed form the budget is enough for buying seven endoprotheses annually. This is not enough, neither quantity nor equipment, for solving completely the problem of all children who need endoprotheses. The rest of the children get endoprotheses that were made in Ukraine. They are inferior in quality to foreign ones and have high risks of epiphenomenon and loss of the limb.