Malta: Projekt Lazarus Commandery donates to Puttinu Cares Foundation (May 2018)
The highly active Projekt Lazarus Commandery within the Grand Priory of Malta has a proven track record of not only aiding and collecting funds for initiatives of the Grand Priory itself, but also, by means of its various presences and performances around the various councils of Malta, raises needed funds for worthy causes.
One such worthy cause is the Puttinu Cares Foundation. Chaired by Dr. Victor Calvagna, who is also a recipient of the Order’s Companionate of Merit, Puttinu Cares, this children’s cancer support group was set up 12 years ago soon after the opening of a specialized Paediatric Oncology Unit in Hospital, now known as Rainbow Ward. The support group offers guidance for the patient and relatives, helps them deal with the ordeal ahead and gives them hope for a brighter future. The team gets to know the families and aims to treat each family with individual needs.
Puttinu offers help when families need to go abroad to pursue any kind of further treatment in UK. Government covers all medical costs for the patient, but Puttinu is there for accommodation for the accompanying family free of charge. Our support has now extended to include adult patients. This alleviates a huge burden, since when a child gets sick parents doesn’t have to shoulder the expense of accommodation to be able to stay with their child in hospital and care for them in between stays.
Since 2008 the Foundation has started slowly purchasing apartments and today they own 18 apartments in Sutton. The support group have however been receiving requests for help from people suffering from various ailments, and not just from Cancer. They realised that in order to be able to help all these people with accommodation they require more than just the 18 apartments in Sutton. Since December 2014 they were renting another seven apartments near the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton. This means that 25 apartments are available to hundreds of families in their time of need. The rental of these apartments’ costs to 60,000 euros every six months.
Right now, between 60 - 90 patients are having treatment in one of 30 different hospitals in UK every month. These patients can spend weeks, months and even years away as in patients or coming and going from hospital.
During the annual 'Puttinu Cares' Marathon, the Lazarus Projekt Commandery were physically present throughout the event and collected funds for this worthy cause.
‘I would like to personally thank all my team and all the Puttinu Cares organisers and the team of volunteers for the great work that you do in the name of charity,' stated Anthony Galea, the Commander of Projekt Lazarus. 553 Euros were collected and donated to Puttinu Cares Malta on the day in what can best be described as a 'true feast of generosity and the atmosphere was amazing: all the general public who visited or called and gave you donations throughout the whole weekend: you were incredible...a tiny nation with a giant heart indeed.'