For a thirteen-year-old Kyrylo, the war lasts a day longer than for all of us.

On February 23, the boy was diagnosed with cancer. It seemed that there could be no worse news. But the morning of the 24th has come.

Kyrylo is an athlete and football player. After the last football match, he had a fever and pain in his legs. The results of the CBC showed that something was wrong, and Kyrylo was hospitalized in Kryvyi Rih.

Doctors did a bone marrow biopsy to determine an accurate diagnosis, but they managed to send the material for examination only on the third attempt. Due to the war, it was impossible to get to the laboratories.

A volunteer brought the material to the laboratory, despite the threat to his life. Having the results, doctors finally prescribed the necessary treatment.

When Kyrylo underwent chemotherapy, he regularly went down to the basement of the hospital’s bomb shelter because of the air raid siren’s warnings. The cold and moldy basement simultaneously was a protection from Russian bombs and a threat to a boy with no immunity. 

Kyrylo was weakened by chemotherapy, and his pregnant mother carried him in her arms down from the fifth floor to the basement every time there was a siren. 

It was hard for everybody, so the family decided to go to the Western Ukrainian Specialized Children’s Medical Center in Lviv. It became a hub for children with cancer during the war, preparing for evacuation abroad.

Today, Kyrylo, together with his mother and older sister, is already in the medical center of Austria, where he continues his own war.

“It’s said there’s a need for good people in heaven. No, good ones are needed here on earth, especially now,” the mother ends the conversation.