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What makes the difference

Tanya suffers from phenylketonuria also known as Filling's disease. It affects the brain, causing convulsions, hyperactivity, self–traumatic behavior and mental disorders. Phenyl–free dietary protein taken on a regular basis is the only remedy. Hardly accessible and far too expensive in Belarus, it kept arriving to Tanya through the last year, courtesy of WJR and SHS Int. company.

If thoroughly measured, the recent supply of this vital food supplement will last Tanya one whole year. For a girl of 10, this is almost an eternity, and only an eyewink for her mother Liudmila — before she resumes her desperate run against fatality and red–tape. Liudmila has learned a lot since she fights for Tanya's life and future. Hopefully, her newly acquired cooking and baking skills will provide an efficient back–up to the medication.

Together with Tanya's younger sister, three of them live in a two tiny rooms accommodation of a former factory hostel. They stick to basics in their everyday life, their only luxury being the certainty WJR will not let Tanya down. That is the difference now. They can also make plans.

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