My name is Julia, I’m 29 years old. In 2017 I was diagnosed with severe aplastic anaemia. Doctors said that a bone marrow transplantation was the only one thing that could save my life! It was necessary to have a transplantation as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, in Ukraine (one of the largest European countries) in the 21st century it is still not possible to have an unrelated transplantation for an adult patient! Also, there is no active register of potential donors anymore.
Thanks to God, with the help of friends, family and other people we could collect thousands of dollars and find a clinic to have a bone marrow transplantation abroad – in my case in Poland!
The problem I encountered is the problem that all Ukrainians with blood diseases face who need transplantation. The challenge is to stay alive until you find a way to have a transplantation somewhere, but not in our country. For Ukrainians who need a transplantation it’s not just a story of how to survive the operation, it’s a story of how not to fall in the spirit of despair. Unfortunately, many people simply do not have time or means to do it all.
I had a bone marrow transplantation in July 2017, my brother was my donor! Thank you, donor! Me and my family thought for a long time about the situation in Ukraine. Life could not be as it was before… We had a great desire to do something that could help make bone marrow transplantation possible and give a second chance of life to thousands of Ukrainians. To give a ray of hope!
Nine months after my transplantation, me and my husband were in Dresden to sign a contract with the DKMS laboratory. We decided to register all Ukrainians who wish to become a potential donor! We see it as a kind of gratitude to all donors from all over the world who saved the lives of Ukrainians by donation stem cells.
Since then, UBMDR has begun its work… Over these 10 months, with the help of many people we registered more than 500 Ukrainians as potential donors, fully paid for their HLA typing with charitable contributions. We have a lot of people who want to be a potential donor… but we need some more help. We are very grateful to the worldwide community for their support!!! We also hope for understanding and support of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in behalf of all people that live there.
UBMDR is on the WMDA list on the official site: https://share.wmda.info/display/WMDAREG/Database