Neediest Cases | Semion Shkolnik
Semion Shkolnik, 66, a painter, emigrated from Kyiv to the United States 20 years ago with his wife, Alla Shkolnik.
In 2008, Ms. Shkolnik started having chronic stomach problems. The next year, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 gastric cancer. Mr. Shkolnik feared that she had been affected years earlier by contamination from the 1986 nuclear plant accident in Chernobyl, less than 100 miles from Kyiv.
Ms. Shkolnik died at age 54.