Kazakh 2-Year-Old Fights Cancer With Help Of New Yorkers

ASTORIA, QUEENS – Tatyana Ignatushenko describes her best friend's 2-year-old daughter, Alima, as "the sweetest and most positive baby you can ever meet."

The Astoria woman met the mom, Ayzhan Kopey, in Kazakhstan before she moved thousands of miles to Queens. But despite the oceans and countries that now separate them, she's determined to be there for Kopey and Alima, who now need her more than ever as the little girl prepares to fight off cancer.

"Alima is my best friend's daughter and I'm helping them to collect funds for the treatment," Ignatushenko told Patch.

Ignatushenko launched a crowdfunding campaign titled, "Help baby Alima to get healthy," on May 12 hoping to do just that. In under two weeks, she's raised nearly $16,000 from almost 300 donors.

The money will go toward the cost of chemotherapy - and eventually surgery - needed to get rid of a cancerous tumor that's plagued Alima for much of her life, according to the GoFundMe page.

What started as an unexplained pain in the little girl's lower back when she was just three months old was eventually diagnosed by doctors in Kazakhstan as a 7-centimeter tumor known as Teratomoa.

Kopey and her husband took Alima to Seoul, South Korea in early May to get treated, but the test results came out even worse. Doctors told the family the tumor was cancerous and had spread to other parts of the little girl's body. She needed immediate chemotherapy before having any surgery.

On the other side of the world, Ignatushenko sprang into action, pleading for donations.

"Right now we are collecting money in order to get chemotherapy and praying that the tumor will stop growing and it will be operable after the therapy," she wrote on GoFundMe page.

"Once the amount is collected, it will be sent to Alima's (parents)."

She set the fundraising goal for $100,000, which she said is around how much doctors estimate the 2-year-old's treatment will cost. The family is planning to have the treatment done in Germany, she said.

"The entire treatment will cost a lot of money but we will do EVERYTHING to save Alima's life," Ignatushenko wrote in an update to the page.

Treatment at first appeared to be going well for Alima, who on Tuesday finished her first round of chemo. But in the next - and latest - update posted on Wednesday, Ignatushenko revealed the toddler's kidneys had stopped working.

"Please," the update read, "pray for our angel!"

(Lead photo via GoFundMe, a media partner of Patch)