Ivan Krivenko is a very brave 8-year old boy from Lugank, Ukraine who defeated brain cancer after a two year long battle. Fighting and defeating cancer takes huge efforts and has its toll on the body. Right now Ivan needs a lot of help to recover from the illness so he could walk and play again. Only a professional and tailored rehabilitation can help Ivan recover.

You can watch a short video  prepared about Ivan by one of Russian TV Channels "HTB" here   www.youtube.com/watch?v=720TO-UlP10&feature=youtu.be) ( the video is in Russian and contains English subtitles).

Ivan's story started two and a half years ago when Ivan, being a very lively, smiling and active boy, was all of a sudden diagnosed with brain cancer. He was operated in Lugansk
hospital, where he stayed unconscious for 8 days thereafter and could not even breathe  by himself. When the first  positive signs of recovery appeared, Ivan’s family started looking for a hospital that would be able to continue the treatment of his complicated case of medulloblastoma of 4th cerebral ventricle. Ivan was admitted to Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Centre in Moscow where his treatment was financed by a Charity Foundation of Russian actor K. Khabensky. Thanks to the efforts of the specialists of the centre, the cancer was defeated after almost two year long battle. However the intensive treatments (several courses of radiation and chemo treatment) lead to heavy consequences.  8 year old Ivan suffers from weight deficit, he cannot walk independently and he also has speech and movement coordination difficulties.

To help Ivan recover a long course of complex rehabilitation is needed that is unfortunately currently not available in the necessary scope neither in Ukraine nor in Russia. Gutmann Institute based in Barcelona, Spain specialising in neurorehabilitation
has developed a customised two month rehabilitation course for Ivan, which will
hopefully allow him to recover and get back to normal life. The cost of the rehabilitation course is almost 40 000 EUR, which is a huge sum for Ivan and his family. Ivan’s father is a taxi driver and his mother is currently unemployed, spending all of her time taking care of Ivan. The family had to move from Lugansk to Moscow because of their son’s treatment and leave their careers and previous life behind. Almost half of the sum needed for rehabilitation was collected with the help of a charity foundation  Bumazhny Zhuravlik in Russia after a video was shown about Ivan at "HTB"- one of the biggest Russian TV channels . However a considerable amount of money still needs to be raised in order to hit the required sum and get the much needed treatment at Gutmann Institute.

Ivan and his family will be very thankful for your help and donations!