On February 15, International Childhood Cancer Day, a Photo Exhibition called "Moments of Life" opened with the assistance of OJSC "Dneprospetsstal". The works of Tatyana Nechipurenko tell about the lives of young patients at the Oncology and Hematology Ward.

"Hearing about childhood cancer patients many conjure up images of a hospital ward where kids are lying in bed and slowly dying. But the children there do live! They play, mature, learn how to speak and walk, count and read, fall in love and fight. They are ordinary children although with very grave illnesses", says Irina Gavrisheva, representative of the Board of the Foundation "Happy Child" and organizer of the exhibition.

The children spend from 7 to 9 months in the hospital. Now there are 154 children across the Zaporozhye region registered as in- or outpatients of the oncology and hematology wards at the Regional Children's Clinical Hospital. Nineteen of them are currently receiving treatment in the hospital.

Even though Ukraine in world ratings is listed among countries having the fewest number of childhood cancer patients, the mortality rate exceeds similar world-wide figures which signifies serious problems in diagnosis and profiling of the disease as well as in medical treatment.

Approximately seventy per cent of young patients survive thanks to modern therapeutic facilities. Another thirty per cent, fifteen hundred children a year, could live but die due to lack of funding, blood donations and qualified medical help. It is now that the parents and their children need support and understanding. With this goal in mind the photo exhibition "Moments of Life" was held.