❗️Antek fights for life! Urgent help needed!

A brain tumour is killing our 12-year-old son! It’s already the second recurrence… Cancer wants to take Antoś away from us but we won’t give up – we’re fighting for his life! We desperately  need your support – Antoś has to undergo a surgery as soon as possible. Please, read our appeal, help us, save a life… Every minute, every day counts!

Everything that is associated with cancer we know all to well… The hospital that has become our second home. Stress before yet another test results. Oncology. Chemo and all its adverse effects… And the worst of fears – fear of losing our own child.

Our story began 10 years ago. All this time, we have never asked for help, we have never looked for support of any foundations… We didn’t think we’d need to, but we have no choice. We must save our son, whose life is in mortal danger…

Antoś got sick when he was only 3. We took him to the hospital for a completely different reason, he just burnt himself. In fact, we wouldn’t have discovered the tumour so early if not for this incident… Antoś started fainting, he was suffering from delirium. He had a CT scan... An ambulance took us to the Children’s Memorial Health Institute.

Brain tumour. These 2 words kept resonating in our heads… It was the end of the world, of our world, in which we lived happily with our healthy child. Our dramatic battle for Antoś’ life has begun.

The pressure in the head was very high, a quick surgery saved Antek’s life. An MRI scan revealed what we were faced with… A glioma, an extremely deadly cancer, very dangerous, very difficult to cure… Located in the most unfortunate area – stemming from the hypothalamus, comprising the optic chiasm. A team of neurosurgeons decided to reduce the tumour; a total resection was not an option.

It was hard, very hard… Straight from the neurosurgery ward we got to the oncology, where Antoś started his chemotherapy. Our life changed beyond recognition. Countless trips, daily life on oncology, seeing our son connected to the pump administering the drug – a poison that is supposed to save the life of our little Antoś. The last cycle and waiting for the CT scan after the treatment was like waiting for a death sentence. Fortunately, the result was good, the next one and the one after that as well – they indicated that the rest of the tumour is “asleep” so we were tiptoeing around it not to wake it up.

That was until 2018. A recurrence. Our enemy woke up… We couldn’t, we didn’t want to believe it. After all these years of peace and quiet we thought that it had forgotten about us… We started our battle all over again. The second time’s always harder, the chances are decreasing and the fear is growing… Another year of chemotherapy reduced the tumour but, as it turned out later, only for a while.

November 2019. Another recurrence. It is hard to describe what we felt… Unfortunately, chemo doesn’t work anymore… We need a precise scalpel. There is a 5-cm bomb ticking in Antek’s head. We don’t have any more time. The condition of Antoś is getting worse and worse, he’s suffering from paresis of his right hand, he has problems with balance and walking, with short-term memory, his eyesight keeps getting worse…

Antoś qualified for treatment in Tubingen – a clinic that saves children with the most serious brain tumours… Professor Schumann specialises in hopeless cases, he operates tumours even in the trickiest areas. It’s already the second recurrence for Antek and the tumour’s location is very difficult… What’s more – the Tubingen clinic has an intraoperative MRI that enables verifying the results immediately after the procedure. Unfortunately, such equipment is not available in Polish facilities.

Tubingen gives Antoś the highest chances for life but we have to pay for the surgery… That’s the price of our son’s life! We are terrified to tear off another calendar page… We are running out of time… But the time of our child’s life can’t end yet! We ask for your support to save Antoś.

- Parents - Milena and Marcin