It is with great pleasure that I attend tonight's presentation ceremony of the new buildings of the Centre of the Pancyprian Association of Cancer Patients and Friends in Nicosia. A great, primarily social, vision, which puts the suffering fellow human being at the centre, is beginning to take shape and is being implemented in a targeted manner from planning to implementation.
The Centre, fully adapted to European and American standards, will fully meet the needs of patients and their relatives, providing them with dignified and supportive hospitalization conditions for every stage of their disease.
Since 1986, the Pancyprian Association of Cancer Patients and Friends has been counting 36 years of uninterrupted voluntary action, support and offer to our fellow human beings, who are fighting the great battle for the treatment of cancer every day.
The small initial group of individuals, initiators and founders of PASYKAF, motivated by philanthropic feelings of love and devotion for those who suffered from cancer, but mainly knowing well through personal experiences the needs and problems of patients, soon managed to turn it into a large organization with thousands of members and supporters.
Over the years, a substantial effort has been made, focusing on the provision of professional health services, palliative care and the operation of prevention programmes.
This evolutionary upward course of PASYKAF, with the assistance and mobilization of the scientific community, has contributed significantly to changing attitudes in social stereotypes about the practical and holistic treatment of cancer.
The need to create a privately owned Centre, which will house the permanent staff, scientific and specialized collaborators and patients and which will provide high quality infrastructure, has always been an ambitious goal, but a perfectly legitimate one, for the members of the organization.
Recognising the beneficial and functional advantages of such a Centre for every patient with cancer experience, the Government has from the outset willingly stood by their side, leasing, by a Cabinet Decision in 2019, state land to the parish of St. Demetrios, Strovolos Municipality. In addition, it assists and financially supports the efforts of the Organization at every opportunity, while the recent decision taken by the Council of Ministers to establish and appoint a National Cancer Committee should be considered a milestone in the medical events of the country. The primary objective in the whole project is the implementation of an action plan through a National Strategy for a rational approach to Cancer in conditions that allow the best possible assistance to sufferers from early prevention to treatment and palliative care.
Through today's ceremony, PASYKAF expresses its special thanks to all those who expressed their interest and participated in the Architectural Competition, announced for the construction of its Centre, by submitting their designs and studies.
Today, in the context of the presentation of the architectural plans for the Centre, the Jury of Jurors praised all the entries and awarded the first three prizes and the commendation, to which it unanimously agreed, Architectural Engineers Ioakim-Loisas with collaborators Despina Pattichi, Alkinoos Stathopoulos and Prokopis Pattichi, Panagiotis Panagios and Sofronis Markou, Alexandros Livadas and Pavlos Feraios.
Today's event is also an opportunity to publicly thank the sponsor of the Architectural Competition, the Costas Papaellinas Organization - Cyprus Pharmaceutical Organization, as well as all the sponsors of PASYKAF, who over the years have generously supported its multifaceted and humanitarian work as tireless companions.
I take this opportunity to express on behalf of the Government my sincere congratulations to the participants of this Contest and especially to those who excelled. I would also like to express my warmest congratulations to the sponsors of this particular action, which proves that the partnership and cooperation between public and private bodies can only result in benefits for society as a whole. At this point, let me state with absolute certainty that the Government will continue to respond with understanding, sensitivity and solidarity to the difficult struggle for holistic treatment of cancer and upgrading the conditions of the services provided in our country.
In conclusion, I would like to sincerely wish every success to the Board of Directors of PASYKAF and its endless efforts to ensure that our fellow human beings struggling with cancer do not feel for a moment that they are fighting the battle alone, but above all that they continue to walk in a supportive environment in which hope and love play a primary role.
PM/EC/EHR
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