O2Kids was originally a campaign developed by PH Austria and also later made available to PHA Europe. The campaign was based around a short movie describing a young boy (Thomas) suffering from PH. In the film, we see Thomas secluded from his playing friends. When they ask him to play with them, he says «no». But really it is his lungs that say «no». The video of Thomas has touched many hearts. The reach on social media has been fantastic. In this way, we have accomplished one of the main goals with the campaign: To create awareness for PH and especially for children suffering from PH. In addition, the campaign has managed to raise some money for PH children. The aim is to raise enough money to provide some needed children in Europe with oxygen concentrators and electric scooters. Although we have not reached our fundraising goals yet, we have been able to raise enough money to provide the first needed PH child with an electric scooter. Cristina Makarchuk from Ukraine is a small girl suffering from PH. She has problems walking to and from school because of her illness. When she learned about the campaign, she wrote a letter that she put under the Christmas tree. She dreamed about a scooter for Christmas. PHA Europe fulfilled her dreams and Cristina was presented with a scooter through the local Ukrainian association. A video of Cristina on her scooter was published on social media. The O2Kids campaign continues. We hope to go on raising funds for other children like Cristina and we hope to continue to raise awareness for the serious and chronic disease Pulmonary Hypertension. The campaign will hopefully create enough awareness that more people, both children and adults, get their correct diagnoses and are put on life saving medication early in their disease period. In this way, O2Kids campaign helps to greatly improve both survival and life quality of young and old affected by PH.

Learn more about the project at: https://o2kids.help/