Help Maja

Six months ago Maja Čolović Selak was diagnosed with a very serious illness: Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS). PPMS is not only incurable, it is a disease that progresses rapidly and severely affects every aspect of one’s life.

Until recently, Maja lived like all of us - she worked, took care of her small family, raised her daughter Lena, supported her artistic talents, and loved to gather her old school-friends once a year so we don’t lose touch and forget one another. However, everything suddenly changed last April when, with the onset of her first symptoms, she lost her job. Neither Maja nor her doctors initially recognized the symptoms, and months passed before the correct diagnosis was established - a devastating loss of time in the case of PPMS since an early diagnosis might have staved off some of the worst consequences. Facing financial difficulties after losing her job, we (her childhood friends) stepped in: we provided essential medical needs, took her to medical appointments, cleaned her home, and brought her food. But PPMS is relentless: within just a few months, Maja lost the ability to walk; this was followed by other seemingly minor difficulties (balance issues, speech and vision impairment, and reduced mobility). According to her neurologists, Maja is now officially disabled and unable to work.

To make matters worse, the Serbian healthcare system is almost as cruel as PPMS. Due to a bureaucratic maze and the constant shifting of responsibility between different healthcare institutions, Maja has still not been granted a disability pension and insurance, and so she is facing financial difficulties that her closest friends and family cannot bear alone (her mother and husband from whom she is separated are also disabled).

That is why we are launching this initiative: our goal is to raise €5,000 to help Maja and Lena, who is a minor, survive the next six months, until she qualifies for disability retirement. The funds are needed for essential living expenses (food and hygiene), Maja’s medical needs (diapers, medication, transportation to doctor’s appointments, etc.), and monthly bills, both current and overdue.

No one initiates this kind of action unless they are in a desperate situation. But a desperate situation is not always permanent: it can change if we come together. Maja’s situation is more than difficult - it is alarming - and threatens to strip away all dignity from a life that could just as easily be our own or that of our loved ones. Please help us prevent that from happening. Thank you!