I remain an optimist - the last Ilko's message

May 28, 2010
Home Page

Dear Friends,

I want to thank everyone who is supporting me and to tell you how things look and what happened.

I traveled to Jakarta ( Indonesia) for an international conference—the 6th Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy, but before that, on the advice of a doctor I went to a chiropractor to realign my spine to get rid of the pain before my trip. The chiropractor did a few manipulations of my spine to ease the pain but as a result the pain grew worse. And when I was in Jakarta, it was difficult for me to work. Incidentally, I will write about this wonderful and important conference elsewhere; it was a gathering of leaders of civic organizations from all around the world, those who had dedicated their lives to build democracy. The conference was useful and constructive. I was especially impressed by the appearance and speech of the Indonesian President Bambang Yudhoyono. This speech has now been translated into Ukrainian and I will be publishing it soon. It is a good example for “speechwriters” and also for our Ukrainian presidents. Incidentally, Indonesia, just as Ukraine, suffers from corruption. But what happens there is that in Indonesia, the father of the president’s son-in-law is in prison for corruption. It’s interesting; would this be possible in Ukraine?

But getting back to my health. When I returned home, following the advice of my wife I went for some X-rays and it turns out that the problem was elsewhere. I was quickly diagnosed with lung cancer. And now I am undergoing treatment. I believe that the doctors who are treating me are very well qualified. They have prescribed a course of chemotherapy. The treatment that I am receiving for this is the standard treatment all around the world. In any country I would be given the same. The only question is on the selection of medications. I am being treated with medications of French, Israeli and Swiss manufacture.

After the first week of examinations and the first round of chemotherapy I had already spent all of our family funds. If not for your help and support, without a doubt I would not be able to pay for the medical treatment. Today, according to the plan—the third round of chemotherapy, and then there will be three more sessions of chemo together with all the examinations that go with that. The interval between chemo sessions is from one to three weeks depending on my blood count, which is checked every week.

I feel the tremendous support from many people. People are calling me and writing from Ukraine, Europe and the USA… I am very grateful to everyone. This is very important for me.

I remain an optimist. None of us knows how much we will be given. This has led me to reconsider all my values and particularly the value of time. I want to spend it in the most effective and thoughtful way. I have taken up yoga again, just as I did in the 1980s before Chernobyl; I have been going to church. I have been thinking about my work and my organization; I believe that people can and should strive to change the world for the better.
I remain deeply grateful to you all,

Ilko Kucheriv.
Kyiv, May 28, 2010

 


^ Top