Letter to FTC From Bayaraa - September, 2006

Dear Mr and Mrs Robinson

How are you ! Thank you for all the help that I have received from the Face The Challenge. Me and my family are very happy. We had very nice and pleasent summer in Mongolia this year. I am doing search to start own small bussines. Also it is pleasure to tell you that I will become a dad the end of February, 2007. If you don't understand my letter please excuse me, because my english is not good. When I lived in Denver, I learned some english. I wish you good luck and all the best in the world. I hope the Face The Challenge will help more more people around the world. See you forward to come in Mongolia some day. I sent you my family's picture.

Sincerely yours,
Bayaraa and Zoloo (my wife)

In the Spring of 2004 I received an e-mail from Dr. Amgalan Bayanbat, a Mongolian physician and the mother of a six-year-old daughter. Her daughter had her eye removed at the age of two due to a tumor. This removal was done in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Since then, "Dr. Amy" and her husband moved to Denver with their young children. Dr. Amy asked if I could help her obtain a replacement prosthetic eye. Mrs. Barbara Spohn-Lillo, anaplastologist of Prosthetic Illusions in Denver, graciously provided a superior replacement eye that no longer abraded the daughter's socket.

In May of 2004 Dr. Amy shared pictures of her brother, Bayaraa, who lives in Ulaanbaatar. He had a disfiguring and culturally-isolating hemifacial purple birthmark, called a Port Wine stain. She wanted to know if Face the Challenge could help him. In the same month I wrote a request letter to the US Ambassador in Ulaanbaatar, but Bayaraa was denied an exit visa. In May 2005 I wrote another letter which Bayaraa took back to the Ambassador's office. This time Bayaraa was accompanied by Mr. Robert Hagan, a World Health Organization official and Bayaraa's advocate. Bayaraa was granted a visa.

In August 2005 FTC paid for Bayaraa's airfare to Denver. Randy used a ruby pulsed dye laser on Bayaraa in September. But this laser was not as effective in removing the purple discoloration, nor did it penetrate as deeply as needed. So Randy asked Dr. Paul Orton to help Bayaraa. In December Dr. Orton used an intense pulsed laser (IPL) instead, which did help. FTC paid Dr. Orton 0/treatment to cover the cost of using the laser, but Dr. Orton waived his own fees. Since then, Bayaraa had several staged procedures at three-week intervals.

In January 2006 I submitted a letter to the office of Homeland Security and was able to extend Bayaraa's visa to complete these procedures. Now completed, Bayaraa is back with his new bride who accepted him "as is" prior to his travels, but is pleased with the laser results. His new face has "changed his inner world". Dr. Amy's persistence and love for her brother, the generosity of surgeons, and funds FTC donors provided made it all possible.

In Him,
Ginger
Mrs. Ginger H. Robinson, BSN, RN
President
Face the Challenge, Inc.
Centennial, CO

I apologize for not writing for quite a time. Life is busy, days are flying one by one.

Bayaraa is at home now with his new wife. I have the responsibility to thank you with my all heart on behalf of my parents. [This is what they wish they could say] if they could write in English. They said that they saw improvements in his birthmark and are glad to see their own youngest son back.

Dear Ginger, I am glad that Bayaraa's inner world changed as well. He said before he left my home, "I experienced a totally new society and new life style. I have learned how people live with a goal. I became more confident of myself toward my life. Yes, I was waiting to hear that from Bayaraa. I was worried about him all the time because he had a facial birthmark and is the youngest child in the family. Thank you again, my friends. Besides [his having his treatment] you gave him a chance to find himself in this confusing world...

Sincerely Yours, Amy Mrs. Amgalan Bayanbat, MD