Two days ago, the wonderful Fišić family from Novi Travnik visited us. Their daughter, 17 year old Martina, who is fighting her own battle with acute leukemia, sent us this mail which we simply have to share with you:
“Dear Mrs. Marija,
I hope you will have the time to read my letter…My name is Martina. I am 17 years old and three years ago I was diagnosed with leukemia (acute)……and since then I have been fighting…I have acute lymphoblastic leukemia -L1…Chemotherapy was terribly difficult, that is, my body had a hard time handling it. I immediately got diabetes… as for the rest, burnt mucous tissue (mouth, stomach, vocal cords), so for a long time I could neither speak nor eat. I also had gastritis, but I coped really bravely, so bravely in fact that they gave me the pet name Lioness at the ward because they had never seen anybody fight so hard…… However, I am lucky because I had a strong belief in God and the support of my entire family, especially my mother, who was by my side throughout my treatment, even when I was in the hospital for 10 months. My father, who is a doctor and my younger brother, came to Zagreb every weekend, so they did not have it easy either, but we survived. The most difficult time was when I was in the hospital in isolation and nobody could visit me except the staff, but this also passed. I also had radiation therapy, which was also very tough to deal with, after every round of chemo therapy, there were side effects…In August of last year I finished with oral tablet chemotherapy…I am now in the third grade of high school and as I wrote to you, I plan to study medicine. My brother was not a match and could not be a bone marrow donor for me, even though it wasn’t necessary because mine recovered…While we were coming to Zagreb we had some terrible problems before they accepted us, but I will tell you about that when I see you…I would like to thank you very much for the Registry because it will save many lives…Your angel is watching you from heaven and is incredibly proud of her courageous and optimistic mother…Well done…I will come to Zagreb in July for a check up and I hope that we will see each other!!!
I wish you all the best. Goodbye.
Respectfully, Martina”
From our hearts, we would like to thank Martina and her family for visiting us and for sharing the most difficult moments that they went through during Martina’s fight for life. Also, we are grateful for the financial contribution they made to support the expansion of the Croatian Registry of voluntary bone marrow and stem cell donors.