About Gift of Life
Q: What do Gift of Life do?
A: Gift of Life (GOL) raises funds internationally to help children and young adults in need beat cancer. We support patients from the CIS countries diagnosed with cancer and life-threatening blood diseases who receive their medical treatments in local paediatric cancer clinics. Young adults are considered to be up to 25 years old.
Q: Can you please advise the reason as to why the decision was taken to register GOL as a charity in the UK when all the beneficiaries/aid recipients reside outside of the UK?
A: The decision on registration of the Gift of Life fund was made due to the increased need for essential medications that are unavailable locally in the CIS region due to various reasons. The Charity procures such drugs as Foscavir, Cidofovir, Defitelio, Mesna. These are all medications that are essential for the treatment of children with oncological, haematological and immunological diseases.
There is almost a million Russian-speaking people permanently or temporarily residing in the UK, there are branches and subsidiaries of the companies where founders or employees are people who were born, grew up, or have connections with the CIS countries; these are people who would like to help solve existing problems related to childhood cancer care.
In addition, the UK has a favourable tax regime for benefactors and for those who receive donations. The system of tax benefits is called Gift Aid: if the donor (who must be a UK tax resident) fills in a special form, the state increases their donation by 25%.
Sign one form and boost your donation by 25p of Gift Aid for every £1 you donate
Q: There are many similar charities in the UK. What is it that makes you different?
A: We do save lives every day. By acting as a substantial source of support for patients with special needs, we provide effective, but very expensive cancer medications, otherwise unavailable to the patients in local cancer clinics.
For the time being, most unrelated bone marrow donors for the trust of the fund are foreigners. Their search is conducted through the international donor register with donors from many countries, including the UK. Gift of Life supports this search, making transplantations available for patients in Russia.
Q: In terms of local expertise, you rely on Podari Zhizn. How do you support Podari Zhizn and why?
A: GOL raises funds in the UK, the rest of Europe and around the world to support international programmes of Podari Zhizn, a leading Russia’s childhood cancer charity. Gift of Life provides young cancer patients in local hospitals with a better access to the most effective cancer medicines, state of the art surgeries and vital medical care, as well as sponsors educational trips of the local medical experts to international conferences on paediatric oncology, and supports experience exchange between medical specialists from the CIS, Europe, Asia and the USA. Since 2011 Gift of Life has supported hundreds of children and young adults and has become one of the most reputable British charities with Russian heritage.
Q: Why is the Fund called differently in the UK, why not Podari Zhizn?
A: When registering the fund in 2011, we tried not only to find the term that would be the closest to Podari Zhizn, but also to fit it into the cultural and conceptual context of British life, so that it was not just a derivation from the Russian language. This is how the name Gift of Life was born. The corporate style was developed pro bono by the English agency Exposure. In the US, our sister fund is called Podari.Life. All three funds have different names; this underlines their independence especially when working in partnership with each other.
Q: How big is your team?
A: One full-time salaried member of staff and four Trustees/Directors getting no compensation for their contribution. A small team helps us keep admin costs at bay. We do not have a physical office for that reason too.
Q: What is your long-term objective and goals?
A: GOL would like to cover the needs of all its patients requiring essential medications that are currently unavailable in the CIS. To make this happen, the annual income of the Charity would need to be approximately £3 million a year. As for the long-term goal, we will continue raising brand awareness and building trust, which we hope will result in GOL becoming the most recognizable and go-to charity supporting young cancer patients from the CIS countries.
Q: Why would westerners support your charity that is helping children suffering from cancer in the CIS?
A: Cancer knows no borders. Children are in need of help in all parts of the world – international appeal. The system of rendering assistance with oncological diseases in the CIS region only began to form with the advent of charitable organisations in the early 2000s. The Podari Zhizn Foundation is at the source – if there were no local charitable organizations that saved real lives daily, the situation with children’s oncology would have been catastrophic.
Public donations are very important to Gift of Life because in the CIS treatments for cancer and other life-threatening diseases are only partially covered by the state. A large portion of the costs must be shouldered by families who are often living below the poverty line because their child’s illness has depleted their resources.
According to statistics, the survival rate for children’s cancers in Great Britain is improving and has more than doubled in the last 40 years. Over this time, one of the most advanced systems in the world for helping children with cancer has been built here. This is an enormous advance on the 1960s when only about three out of every ten children (30%) with cancer were successfully treated.
The average five-year survival rate, across all childhood cancer types, is 82% in the UK (Survival Table EU). The childhood cancer rate in the UK is the lowest in Europe, and one of the lowest of all Western industrialised countries. This is why the Europeans have an opportunity to support Russia as a country, where a systematic and comprehensive approach is only starting to develop. The UK represents a gold standard of survival to which other countries can aspire.
Q: What does Podari Zhizn do for the child’s oncological care to be a concern of the state? For help to be sufficient and systemic? At what level is the situation with childhood oncological diseases in the UK and EU countries?
A: Podari Zhizn consistently participates in the discussion and the development of federal legislation on access to treatment and care, as well as anaesthesia.
Statistics on childhood cancers in the UK can be found at Cancerresearchuk.org
For European countries check these Survival Table EU.
About the treatment and medications
Q: Who does the Charity support? How to apply for support? Can the Charity take care of the treatment of a child from the UK?
A: Podari Zhizn supports patients from the CIS, if the child has been admitted to a local paediatric cancer clinic for treatment. For more details or to get helped, please email help@podari-zhizn.ru
Q: Why is patients’ age limited to 25 years?
A: The upper age limit is dictated by medical expediency. By law, we should have our patients, in fact still children, transferred to an adult hospital at 18 years of age, upon reaching adulthood. But medical practice shows that it is impossible to change such young children’s protocol to an adult one. Therefore, we help them until they are 25.
Q: Is it true that some kinds of treatment or diagnostics do not yet exist in the CIS, therefore it is necessary to take the children for treatment abroad?
A: In the CIS countries, most modern and advanced types of cancer treatment and diagnostics already exist, but the need for such treatments is growing in the region. Podari Zhizh is aiming to make the most effective cancer treatment available to the patients regardless of where they live, in a big city or a small village. The charity is on a mission to develop local cancer care within the country. In extreme cases, with most patients receiving treatment locally, there is still a need for treatment abroad in certain cases.
Q: Which medications are unavailable locally in the CIS region and can only be supplied from the Western countries?
A: Please check our Medications page for more details.
Q: How to get help from GOL?
A: To get help from us, you need to apply through the local charity, Podari Zhizh, where the expert team of doctors considers all applications with care. An application must include official medical documents and can be submitted by patients, parents or legal guardians. For more details or to apply, please email help@podari-zhizn.ru
Please, note that to qualify for application, a patient must be up to 25 years of age and receiving treatment for cancer or haematological disease in a local clinic.
Treatment abroad is paid for only when a team of doctors has established that necessary diagnostics or treatment cannot be provided locally. According to the foundation’s policy, we do not pay for alternative medicine treatments.
About donors and helping the fund
Q: Who are your supporters/donors?
A: People from different walks of life really. Anyone who has connections with the CIS (through homeland, family, friends, business activities, working for companies with connections to the CIS in the UK or globally, learning Russian language, consuming Russian art and culture) or shares compassion towards severely ill children and teens coming through challenges and struggling to fight cancer on their own.
Q: What kind of tax benefits (according to English law) can I get as an individual or a legal entity, if I make charitable contributions on a regular basis?
A: In England, there is a clear system of tax deductions for philanthropists. Provided the donor has paid sufficient income tax or capital gains tax in that tax year (or with a carry back election, in the previous year) Gift Aid relief allows the charity to reclaim from HMRC the basic rate tax on the amount given – equivalent to 25% of the net amount. The donor must have paid sufficient relevant taxes to cover the reclaim. VAT and council taxes don’t count.
Furthermore, a donor who pays tax at higher than basic rate may deduct the gross donation from taxable income and so reduce his higher rate liability by either 20% or 25% depending on his tax rates. So, a gift of £80 may give the charity £80 + £20 reclaim and the donor relief for £100 against higher rates leading to a repayment of up to £25. This means that a gift of £80 may cost the donor only £55 (£80-£25) while giving the charity £100.
If you are a UK tax payer and donate to Gift of Life do not forget to sign our Gift Aid declaration.
If you donate to other charities get to know more about Gift Aid here https://www.gov.uk/donating-to-charity/gift-aid
Q: How to help Gift of Life?
A: Make a regular or one-off donation, fundraise for us, volunteer with us (donate your time, skills, expertise), bring in new donors and corporate partners, spread the word about the work we do, help us promote our charity at events and activities, act as GOL ambassador, help us grow GOL social media networks. To find out about all such opportunities in detail and/or to contribute, please check Donate and Get Involved sections of the website.
Q: How to make a donation?
A: You can donate online using your bank card – Donate now
To find out about alternative ways to donate check Other ways to donate.
Q: What if by the end of the fundraising campaign for a particular child the target amount is not raised? Does this mean that the treatment will discontinue and any planned operations will be cancelled?
A: No, the treatment will continue in any case – the deficient amount will be taken from the general money pot of the Fund. This is one of the main reasons, why GOL needs a constant replenishment of fund so that they are able to provide this level of security for all wards, in case the raised amount is not sufficient.
Reporting
Q: Where to go for the Charity’s reports?
A: For our annual reports please check the Reports section.
Q: If I donate, for example, by Direct Debit how will I know where the funds go? Is it possible to support a particular child through direct appeal?
A: To find out how your money helps, you would need to write to info@giftoflife.eu. You will then receive a letter/report confirming your funds application. It is possible to provide a particular child with support whenever we have direct appeals running.
Q: Do some of the funds get lost on the way to Russia (commissions, a difference in the exchange rate)?
A: Gift of Life does not send money to Russia. Funds raised by Gift of Life are spent in the UK or the EU countries to pay for essential medications and treatments, cover the costs of bone marrow search and activation, provide professional development and educational programmes for local cancer specialists.