Help me Beat Breast Cancer

A Plea for Help: My Fight to Save My Health, my Life, and My Dignity

My name is Yulia Antonenko and I am a 47-year-old physician, born in Eastern Europe but now living and teaching medicine in the Caribbean (for over 25 years). I have dedicated my life to the care of others, and today, I humbly reach out to ask for care in return.

Several months ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. As a woman, a doctor, and a human being, I find myself in a vulnerable position—not because of the diagnosis alone, but because of what it represents in a place where access to specialized breast cancer care is painfully limited.

I am otherwise healthy and athletic. I have worked hard to preserve my body, mind, and spirit through the years, and those who know me often say I carry beauty inside and out. Yet now, I face the real possibility of losing my life—not because it cannot be saved, but because the options available to me in the Caribbean are few, fragmented, and not suited for the type of life-saving treatment I urgently need.

There is hope. An eminent breast surgeon in Europe—has offered to consider my case. But travel, housing, living expenses and covering the costs of consultation, surgery, post-operative care, radiation therapy, and temporary relocation during recovery has accumulated

beyond our financial means.

This cancer, I believe, is not entirely my own making. Like many women in Eastern Europe of my generation, I carry within me the invisible scars of Chernobyl. As a child, I remember the silence—the lack of warnings, the absence of education, the failures to shield us from the radioactive clouds that blanketed parts of Europe. We drank the water. We breathed the air. We were not told. And now, decades later, my breast harbors a malignancy that may be the final echo of that silence.

I am not asking for pity. I am asking for a chance—to preserve my life, my dignity, identity, and my future as a physician. To be treated not as a case, but as a woman with a story, a purpose, and a body still worthy of wholeness.

If you are reading this, and if you have the means or the network to support me in this journey, I would be forever grateful. Every contribution—financial or otherwise—brings me closer to the care I need and the life I still have so much to live.

With sincere hope and heartfelt thanks!

P.S:

Fortunately, my daughter, Nadia is helping me and acting as the administrator of our GoFundMe campaign to receive the donations. Making sure all funds will go directly to me, as soon as they are received.

I truly appreciate any support during this time. Thank you for your kindness!

P.SS: Here is a breakdown of my treatment expenses:

Surgery: USD $12000,

Surgery related expenses: medication, anesthesia, hospital stay, diagnostic imaging: USD$6000

Travel expenses: USD$4000

Chemotherapy/Radiotherapy: USD$6000

Housing: USD$4000

Total is USD$32000.