Margarita has recently celebrated her sixth birthday. She was looking forward to it so much... "You see, mom, God gave me the gift of another year of life! He believes in me and you should too..." My little girl, my dear little girl. If you only knew how much I believe in you, how much I want to help you and how helpless I feel...

Once, when I was a child, I began to drown when I was swimming in the river. I will never forget the feeling of panic and lack of oxygen. My little Rita has been “drowning” day after day for the last five years. She has cystic fibrosis and she very much wants to live. My girl needs “Pulmozyme" medication, without which Rita literally cannot breathe.

You know, every night, I read "Sleeping Beauty" to my daughter - it's her favorite fairy tale. Rita always says as she falls asleep: "one day, a prince will come and kiss me, and I will get better right away." After she falls asleep, I stroke her hair and say, "of course, darling, he will come. Just keep on breathing until then"...

Unfortunately, our faith in the prince is not enough. For my daughter to keep on living, we need an exorbitant, by our family standards, amount of money every month.

71, 060 hryvnyas (4,298 US dollars) is a sum which will provide medication for my daughter for the next 6 months of life. My husband is an honest government office worker, whose salary is 1,500 hryvnyas (90 US dollars) a month, and therefore, all my hopes and all my prayers are for your help. For the help of compassionate people, who can understand another's pain and provide whatever assistance they are able. As for us, Rita and I promise you, that to repay your kindness, we will blow out the candles on the birthday cake for many, many years to come!