A whole host of celebrities is traveling across Russia this week with books of fairytales that they themselves have written, helping to raise funds for a charity project targeting children with heart conditions.

The popular television presenter Darya Subbotina will be representing the "Alliance of Stars" at the city's Children's Hospital No. 1 on Tuesday.

Actresses Viktoria Tolstoganova, Alyona Babenko, Olga Prokofieva and Yevvelina Bledans, runner Svetlana Masterkova, artistic gymnast-turned-politician Svetlana Khorkina, rhythmic gymnast Lyaisan Utyasheva, television presenter Dana Borisova and others have contributed their fairytales to a book published by the Russian charity foundation "Liniya Zhizni" (Life Line), which runs a series of projects aimed at helping severely ill children who require expensive treatment that cannot be covered by state insurance programs.

The book is being distributed free of charge among young patients in hospitals across Russia, including cardiology clinics in St. Petersburg, Kazan, Volgograd, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg and Moscow.

Film stars and other celebrities taking part in the projects will visit cardiology clinics in various parts of the country to raise children's spirits and help publicize the charity's work. This year, celebrities have teamed up with the charity to promote a fundraising program titled "Laundry to Help Children." Any Russian who purchases Ariel, Tide or Mif laundry detergent or Lenor and Fairy fabric softeners from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30 will automatically be making a donation to the Life Line, which has signed a deal with the detergent manufacturers whereby a percentage from their sales will go to the charity.

"We are linking our campaign to something as basic and trivial as laundry for a reason: it is high time that the terrible stereotype that only wealthy people can donate and help others be broken," said Faina Zakharova, the president of the Life Line Foundation. "With this campaign we want to show that it can be done during a routine shopping trip while buying laundry detergent."

Every year in Russia over 10,000 children find themselves in desperate need of complex and expensive medical operations. The Life Line Foundation aims to find funding for these operations, which are not covered by state insurance programs. The organization helps children of up to 15 years of age who suffer from congenital heart conditions. The condition can be cured, but the equipment and medication required come at a high price: the average cost of treatment for each patient amounts to 180,000 rubles ($6,000), and the operation itself involves expensive and innovative technologies.

Since 2006, the project specifically aimed at treating heart conditions of this nature has raised over 15 million rubles ($500,000) and saved 89 lives. In total, the organization has saved the lives of 2,800 children through its various activities and raised over $13 million.

The book of fairytales that will be distributed at Children's Hospital No. 1 on Tuesday is not the first one created for the charity. During the course of the project, which started in 2004, fairytales have been written by actress Nonna Grishayeva, champion swimmer Maria Kisselyova, actor Andrei Noskov, radio presenter Olga Shelest, MTV host Tutta Larsen, singer Zhasmin, actress Iuliya Menshova and television presenters Yekaterina Strizhenova, Tatiana Arno, Iuliya Bordovskikh and Svetlana Sorokina.

The project's curators include, among others, the prominent actors Sergei Shakurov, Vera Vasilyeva and Yevgeny Mironov, theater designer Oksana Yarmolnik, journalist Svetlana Sorokina, heart surgeon and TV presenter Yakov Brand, human-rights advocate Liudmila Alekseyeva, cartoonist Andrei Bilzho and influential businessman Yuri Kobaladze, managing director of X5 Retail Group.

"We are trying to make sure that the necessary medical assistance – however expensive it might be – is available to children in all regions of Russia," Alekseyeva said.

Hospital facilities and the quality of medical care vary widely across Russia, not only in different regions but also within big cities, depending on the clinic.

"When you look a sick child in the eyes, it gives you a terrible fright: you see such a fear of life – life turned into a great pain – that you really want to make use of every opportunity you have to help," Vasilyeva said.