Can you help, please? I have friends in the north of Romania, known for 26 years: they are very poor (for instance, no bathroom in their home – no bath, toilet, or shower). Dad is, and has been, very sick for some years and can’t work. They have a daughter, Ionela, who I’ve known all of her life: Ionela, 23, a genius medical student, which is amazing bearing in mind the financial restrictions on her due to the restrictions and limitations at home.
3 months ago, Ionela discovered a lump in her breast: being a medical student (one more year to do: top student in her school in the last medical school year), she knew – and knows – what is going on… she was originally told it was pre-cancerous, would be malignant very soon, and that she’d have to have a mastectomy, and her lymph gland and nodes removed. The prospect of losing her breast was something she just couldn’t contemplate: she’s young, and very beautiful.
I suggested she go to another doctor: who said it could possibly be treated with 8 weeks of daily, and very expensive, injections: to some degree, it worked: the cancer went from the lymph gland: and it slowed the growth of the tumour. BUT…
Now it’s getting urgent – stage 3 breast cancer, and the need for surgery is imminent. It’s very contained, which is an answer to prayer. She’s booked in for that surgery on 15 August – not, thankfully, a mastectomy: the surgeon has said he can take fat from her backside (what else should I call it??!!), muscle from around the side of the breast, and ‘cosmetically’ pack the hole left by the tumour. Ionela’s not long been a Christian: and her understanding of God healing – and providing – is not something she acquired in her Orthodox upbringing.
The hospital fees have to be paid by 3 August. 3500 euros for the surgery: another 500 euros (I heard yesterday) for the ‘rebuilding’ work. That would be 20 months income for the family 🙁 – taking ALL of the income. For a student like Ionela, it is totally impossible. Impossible, too, to get a loan and manage the repayment (she’d have to do it over about 4 years) as well as her school costs, and rent where studies.
I’ve promised to (try and) raise the money for her. I was able to cover the costs of some of the earlier treatment, and scans (postponing a trip to do it), but this is bigger than I can contemplate, too.
12 days to the payment day: are you able to help, please? All in, I’m looking to get her 4000 euros, plus another 250 to cover the cost of her food, bedding, etc., while she’s in hospital (none of that discovered in the fees! Thank God for the NHS!!).
If you can help, private message or email me (paul@paulbennison.com – that’s all you’ll need for Paypal anyway), and I’ll send you the ways you can get the money to me, bank or paypal, or Stewardship (if it’s done soon): I’ll be so grateful on her behalf, and her family’s….
