Advisory opinion: page 1, page 2

There is a letter from Arina Lukasheva for you:

“The first question people ask me as soon as they find out about my diagnosis is “How do you live with this?” They believe I shouldn’t have any strength, goals, dreams since my incurable disease means nothing but the dead end.

Against all odds, I am finishing school this year. I want to enter the university. My everyday life depends on medications, which are not, unfortunately always financed by our government and are too expensive for my family to buy.

I can enjoy my life full of joy, set and achieve my goals as long as I take my medicine. I am sometimes scared when my parents cannot afford to buy this costly medicine. My life is in real danger during such moments.

Whenever I face such rough times I hope for your help. You never let me down. There are big-hearted people who have never seen me but I must ask you again to transfer some money into my account so I can continue to live and cherish every single day! I need your hand of help again. I am well aware of my cruel reality without medicine: asthmatic fits with less and less oxygen in my lungs and titanic efforts to gasp for breath. Support my dream of a long happy life, please!"

There is also a letter from Arina’s mother Elena:

“I look at my daughter and admire her. She has learnt to appreciate every moment. She tries to hide her real state of things (even though she can sometimes hardly do it) and shows everyone that her diagnosis is not a death sentence and one should never give up.

As Arina’s parents we try to do everything we can to support our daughter’s battle for life. This battle is becoming more and more severe and sometimes we can barely fight alone. We regularly have to buy expensive medications. There are just a few antibiotics, which work for Arina, and they are usually the costliest. We really hope for your financial support!”