Together Against Leukemia

As of June 28, 2018, after approval by the District Court IX Commercial Department in Wrocław, our current name has changed from “Firefighters together against Leukemia” to “Volunteer Fire Service Special Rescue Group – Together against Leukemia”.

Since 2015, we have been involved in the promotion of bone marrow donation, and since February 18, 2017, we have been operating as a legally registered association. Our main goal is to promote the idea of bone marrow donation and the registration of potential bone marrow donors for the Medigen Bone Marrow Donors Center. We carry out our main activities through numerous shows, sports events in which we also take part, and participation in charitable events throughout the country. In a very short time, we started cooperating with a fire brigade from South-Western Poland, where we are from (Lower Silesia). As of today, after less than a year, we are permanently in twelve provinces in our country, previously as the Association and now as “TSO”.

In the last year during several events, of which we were a co-organizer or participant, we managed to register several hundred potential donors. Additionally, during some of these campaigns, in close cooperation with Blood Donation and Blood Treatment, we collected a large amount of blood. Although chances of finding the right donor is from one in 25,000 to several million, we are already recording our first successes - saving human lives by donating bone marrow. During our short time of operating, we have three confirmed cases of saving a life and we are waiting for the fourth.

From November 2017 to January 2018 the campaign "A Package for a Kid for Christmas, from a Firefighter" ran, during which we collected toys and office supplies for children on paediatric oncology wards, which we distributed in twelve hospitals in our country and in several paediatric hospitals.

On 18 September 2018, we started the second edition of the campaign "A Package for a Kid for Christmas from a Firefighter".

In 2017 in November, we were invited by the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, to the awards gala “For our Common Good”. The acknowledgement of our work for the health and life of another person was a great reward for us, which we work towards with great pleasure. This year we are returning to the Presidential Palace for the same event. An event that we have all worked for. All our volunteers have great hearts that bring help and joy especially to the youngest patients of oncological hospitals.

Below is a message that I received a few days ago from the parent of the child for whom we were looking for a potential bone marrow donor: “Hello, this is Michał Pisar .... our son Milosz had a transplant on 10 January, some time has passed and I have thought about writing to you several times now. We have gone through a lot since the transplant, the complications were difficult and sometimes we lacked strength. He is currently taking steroids, but we hope that now he will be able to stop that soon and slowly discontinue all medication. Miłosz feels better every day, we left the hospital at the end of February. He is now even running, riding a bike and playing football. The anniversary of looking for a donor for Milosz is approaching. I would like to call tomorrow and talk during the day. Best wishes.”

I have nothing to add to the above text. That is why we do it, to bring joy not only to parents, but above all to the children. There is nothing more precious than the smile of a child with leukaemia. There are joyful moments and there are very depressing ones too, because there are also children who run out of time to fight this disease. We do our best by exploiting the potential and social trust that our brigade enjoys. We remember those children who have already passed away, while we also try as much as possible to bring a smile and joy to those who are fighting for health and those who have beaten the illness.

We are here to turn tears into joy. All our campaigns are charitable, we are not a business. We are a group of volunteers who help people suffering from blood cancer, focusing in particular on children.

Detailed information on the legal structure and our activities, as well as descriptions of our campaigns can be found on our website www.strazacyprzeciwbialaczce.pl or www.facebook.com/StrazacyWspolnieprzeciw Biiewaczce/.