Greek Seven-Year-Old Anastasia Needs Your Help to Fight Brain Cancer

The family of the 7-year-old Greek girl Anastasia, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, are seeking financial support after learning that the cost of their daughter’s necessary surgery is nearly 700,000 euros ($820,316).
In a social media post made in late October, Anastasia’s parents announced to friends and family that the young girl had been diagnosed with an extremely aggressive form of brain cancer that is not treatable by surgery and has a poor prognosis.
Hoping to fight the cancer, rather than give up, her parents sought out experimental surgeries and treatments in order to help Anastasia in any way human possible.
The desperate family found three promising trial programs, including two in the US. One is located in Texas, and the other is head by the Greek neurologist Dr. Zacharoulis at Columbia University in New York. The other treatment option is in the German city of Cologne.
These experimental treatments are not approved by the Greek health authorities, however, so the family must undergo a complicated bureaucratic process in order to have Anastasia treated. An added difficulty is the expense, which is estimated to reach 700,000 euros ($820,316 US).

The tragic circumstances of the family and their commitment to seek out the best treatment for their daughter has prompted their fellow citizens of Kalamata, a city on the Peloponnesian peninsula, to create fundraisers and events to raise money for Anastasia’s treatment.
Donation boxes have also been set up in businesses across the city to help the girl and her family.
The family’s facebook page, where there is more information about helping Anastasia, is flooded with posters from events put on to support the young girl.
The family says that they are “moved by everything that is happening in Kalamata,” considers the city and its residents a “source of strength” during this unimaginably difficult period.