Let´s play a game. Close your eyes and imagine you just turned 31 and finished your long years of study with a Ph.D. in Engineering. You´re a young, motivated researcher, climbing to the top of your career, you didn´t get to have all the fun of your twenties or to build your own family because of your studies, but that´s okay because the best is yet to come, isn´t it?

                You have a workplace that you enjoy and suddenly you get the occasion to attend an international conference in South Africa, which seems to be the perfect time to get some international acknowledgement of your work and also to visit an exotic place.

                And as you reach there, a weakness in your right arm and leg starts to creep in. You never had major health issues, so you have no idea where this is coming from, or what it means. You´re far away from the loved ones, far away from your home country and it´s getting hard to speak or control your body. Not the best scenario, you would say.

                Mihaela reached the Cape Town hospital unable to walk unassisted or to fully control her right arm. Her speech was also partially impaired, so the doctors ran several tests and a brain MRI to discover the root of the problem. The diagnosis was cold and frightening, she had a glioblastoma, a very aggressive cancer of her brain stem.

                As soon as she could handle the journey, the South Africa doctors sent her back to our home country, Romania, to receive appropriate treatment. She was accompanied by a doctor, as she couldn´t fly alone anymore. But here, the doctors were not so positive. The tumor removal surgery presents high risks for her life and also for her life quality afterwards. Their recommendation was to perform the surgery at the Neuroscience Institute of Hannover, in Germany, but the costs of the surgery there raise up to 70.000 Euro. And the Institute doesn´t work with insurance, they require the money in advance.

                We could all agree that no amount of money is too big is to save a life. But the problem is that the average income of a Romanian can not cover this amount of money, no matter what they would do. Her parents and us, her friends, have limited possibilities of helping her. And the aggressivity of this type of cancer doesn´t give her enough time to raise the needed sum, she needs the surgery as soon as possible. It´s a race against the clock for her own life.

                The irony makes it that she is a biomaterials researcher. Without people like her, there wouldn´t be any implants or prosthetics, even regular teeth replacements would be impossible. Her service in medical engineering is priceless and we want to help her back.

                That is why we turn to you for help in saving her life. Any donation, no matter how small, will make a difference.  Please don´t let our faith in humanity get lost.

                She is one of the most positive, caring and kind-hearted person I know and our world would be a darker place without her. Let´s not allow the cancer write the end of her story and join our side in battling this horrible disease.

                Few years ago, when I had the holiday blues, she brought me a winter globe and told me she will be my reindeer that year. Let´s all be her reindeers this year and help her feel that miracles can happen for Christmas.  

** any donations through Paypal will be directed to Mihaela and her family and proof of payment will be posted in the end of this campaign.