Help is coming: a full-time cancer support center will open in Moscow

February is the month of fighting cancer. World Cancer Day is celebrated on February 4, and World Children's Day with Cancer is celebrated on February 15. According to the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, in our country, more than 4.5 thousand children and more than 4.4 million adults are under the dispensary supervision of oncologists. And while dozens of charitable foundations are involved in helping children with these diseases, there are not many organizations that support adults with cancer. Among them are the funds Zhivoy, Further, the Leukemia Foundation and Oncologika. Experts discuss the importance of the participation of charitable foundations in supporting adults with cancer in the Izvestia article.

Not just a diagnosis

— Unfortunately, oncology is an understandable topic for society. Almost every family has encountered this diagnosis in one way or another. — emphasizes Alexander Borodkin, director of the Zhivoy Adult Charity Foundation. This is a disease that gives you almost no time to make decisions and realize that you need to act quickly, and make very difficult decisions too.

— There is no single diagnosis of cancer, there are many diagnoses that have their own characteristics of occurrence, clinical manifestations, and treatment. Some develop at lightning speed, while others require monitoring and delayed initiation of therapy," explains Yulia Sinitsyna, Program Director of the Leukemia Foundation. — But all the diseases of our wards lead to one thing: a person's life changes dramatically, the prognosis is not always clear, and this difference is clearly visible: before and after.

Anton Elizarov, Oncologica's Chief Operating Officer, notes that in the regions, people are more likely to find themselves in a situation where medical care is formally available, but it is difficult to receive it on time. Typical problems include long waits, a shortage of specialists, and the need to travel to another city for treatment, which requires money for travel and accommodation.

Speaking about the availability of care in the regions, Oksana Moldovanova, founder and president of the Charity Foundation for Women with Cancer "Further", notes that comprehensive rehabilitation is currently available in no more than 25-30% of specialized medical institutions. Charitable foundations are trying to close this gap as best they can, collecting donations for psychological help, rehabilitation and other related expenses.

Support as a system

Since 2019, the Oncologica Foundation has been helping adults with cancer diagnoses throughout Russia. Over the past six years, more than 40,000 people from 1,342 localities have received support. Today, the foundation offers 20 different assistance options: from paying for diagnostics and accommodation in federal centers to legal and psychological consultations. The foundation's hotline receives more than 8,500 requests per month.

— The Foundation does not only work online throughout the country. We have organized offline work in 14 regions of Russia. Both formats of assistance are in demand. Every year we plan the volume of consultations and see a steady increase in face—to-face appeals," says Miroslava Sergeenko, founder and president of the Oncologica Charitable Foundation.

The statistics of appeals to the Oncologica Foundation for 2025 clearly show that people with a wide variety of cancers need support at all stages of treatment.

Real-life examples from the practice of the Leukemia Foundation confirm the effectiveness of the support.

— We had a case when an adult man refused to be treated, but only one consultation with an oncopsychologist helped him accept the diagnosis and start treatment, — says Sinitsyna. — Or a young girl who underwent a bone marrow transplant and turned to us for support. Due to health reasons, she could not return to her previous job and planned to change her profession. She worked with an oncopsychologist and career counselor for several months, then completed training and became a nail service master.

The Space of Power

— For 90% of people, the path of cancer treatment is like a difficult jungle. When you need an experienced guide who has already been through all this and survived. Equal consultants become such guides, says Oksana Moldovanova. — Equals will provide emotional support, share their experiences of overcoming illness and useful contacts. They do not give medical recommendations, but they can explain how to take medications prescribed by a doctor correctly when to sound the alarm. Peer consultations do not replace the help of a psychologist, but complement it.

Systemic assistance in the treatment of oncology is the building of an environment of professional and human support at every stage. The Oncologica Foundation team currently has more than 100 peer consultants — people with personal experience of the disease. In 2025, they conducted more than 9,000 consultations, and the foundation's psychologists conducted more than 75,000 consultations over six years of work. More than 770 volunteer psychologists, lawyers, and peer counselors have joined the foundation's network.

To scale up its assistance, Oncologica has been participating in T-Bank's "Course of Kindness" all-Russian social initiative since February 1. Within two months, the bank will double customer donations, and the funds raised will be used to create a full-time support center in Moscow.

In this offline space, in one visit, you can talk to a psychologist and an equal consultant, get legal help, and have tea with those who follow a similar path. The center will also host face-to-face mutual assistance groups and therapeutic classes.

Looking back at her experience of fighting cancer, Miroslava Sergeenko admits: most of all, she missed having people around who had already gone the same way, and professional psychological help.

"Today we have managed to build this systematic care in Oncologica, and it will be fully available in the new center full—time," she notes. — Face-to-face work with a specialist cannot be completely replaced by a remote format. When the anxiety level reaches peak values, depressive states occur, the personal presence of a specialist is of fundamental importance.

"We are launching a pilot center in Moscow as a test site," Elizarov explains. — We will carefully look at which practices work best, where adjustments are required, and which query scenarios are the most frequent. The center is scheduled to open in Moscow in the summer and autumn of 2026. According to the estimates of the foundation, from 4 thousand to 5 thousand people will be able to visit it annually. After that, we will replicate the model in the regions to adapt to the local context and infrastructure capabilities.

The new center plans to pay special attention not only to patients, but also to their loved ones, who need psychological support no less.

— Accumulated emotions without support can lead to burnout, conflict, and the destruction of relationships. Our task is to preserve the family as a support for a person with a diagnosis. Therefore, help at the center will be available to both relatives and children of patients," she says.

Partnership with business

For Oncologica, participation in the "Course of Kindness" from T-Bank is an opportunity to create a living space where everyone who is faced with an oncological diagnosis can receive not just advice, but support and participation.

— The "Course of Kindness" was conceived as a catalyst for social change. To ensure that they occur systematically and correctly, we work with reliable funds that have proven their effectiveness," says Tatiana Polyakova, Head of Strategic Social Projects at T-Bank.

—Big business understands the importance of a systematic approach to solving problems like no other," says Yulia Sinitsyna from the Leukemia Foundation. — In our foundation, we are also creating an ecosystem of patient support: we work not only with them, but also with their loved ones, with doctors and nurses, and with society. We are changing the environment so that every adult diagnosed with blood cancer receives all the necessary support and returns to life. And to work for the same companies.

— Business is maturing in its attitude to charity. One—time promotions and targeted assistance are very important, but systemic infrastructure projects create sustainability," confirms Alexandra Borodkina, director of the Zhivoy Charity Foundation for Adults.

According to her, such programs with a well—established fund verification system allow businesses to see the quality and volume of social changes, and funds to plan their work and invest in supporting their wards.

Oksana Moldovanova, founder and president of the Charity Foundation for Women with Cancer "Further", agrees with her colleague. She says that such projects are an example of smart charity and a systemic shift for the entire sector.

— Companies want to see their money working for society for a long time. In the new reality, it is important for businesses to be involved in positive social changes," the expert emphasizes.

The Leukemia Foundation also sees this trend.