|
The Lifeline project started in 1996 when we were asked to help two Russian children with leukaemia, a 14 year old girl Sasha and 12 year old boy Alexey. They needed bone marrow transplants which were not available in Russia but they did not have the £75,000 needed for this chance of life.
We raised the money and they both had successful transplants at Hammersmith Hospital in London; Sasha is now a 27 year old artist and 25 year old Alexey is a chef in St Petersburg.
Following their return home we offered their Russian doctors the possibility to accept one patient per year for transplant, and they immediately referred seven more children! We knew that there was not enough money or capacity in the UK for such a number, and so we wrote to hospitals around the world seeking help. Of all the countries we contacted only Italy offered to help. Pavia, Gaslini (Genova) and Padova hospitals accepted our children, and our first patients were transplanted without charge. It was an amazing humanitarian gesture and it gave us the confidence to continue the work and accept more children for life-saving transplants. Children are now treated in 11 hospitals in 9 Italian cities.
Since that time we have extended our work to include patients from Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. In the last 14 years we have helped several thousand children, and each week more are referred to us. |
|
PAUL O'GORMAN LIFELINE Registered Charity No 1108060 Long Barn, Houghton, Arundel, W Sussex BN18 9LN, UK. e mail info@lifelinegb.org
LIFELINE ITALIA ONLUS via Marcanova 6, 35137 Padova, Italia e mail: info@lifelineitalia.org |
