The unique power of love that might significantly contributed to the treatment of diseases such as the Childhood Cancer, has been brought up during the emotionally affecting One Day meeting conducted at the Guest House of ELPIDA on Friday, February 16th 2024 on the occasion of the International Childhood Cancer Day.
The One Day meeting was dedicated to the memory of the Founder of the Association “ELPIDA – Association of Friends of Children with cancer”, Marianna V. Vardinoyannis.
The Directors of the Clinics of the Oncologic Unit of Children “Marianna V. Vardinoyannis-ELPIDA” who are among the best Pediatricians of our Country, the healed children and parents of children with neoplasmatic diseases, the representatives of the most significant entities for the childhood cancer’s handling have all of them raised their voices sending a strong message that, the childhood cancer might and must be defeated.
GREETINGS
The event has opened with the written greeting of the President of the Association “ELPIDA” Christianna V. Vardinoyannis, who has pointed out among others that, she is especially touched from the fact that, the One Day meeting is dedicated to the memory of her mother Marianna: I am deeply moved because we celebrate this Day at the place where the heart of ELPIDA beats in an event that is dedicated to the memory of the Founder of the Association “ELPIDA” and my most beloved mother, Marianna. The monitoring force behind the emblematic work and the important heritage of my mother at the worldwide fight for the treatment of the childhood cancer, it was always the LOVE which is raising us up and give us courage not to give up even in the most difficult moments of our life. It is thereof the most ideal tribute to the Orama of a woman who has dedicated her life to the children with cancer and their families, the topic “ Love never disappoint us” of the One Day Meeting that it is organized from our Gust House.
The General Secretary of the Association, Mrs. Tzortzina Ellina has expressed her thanks to the present people and has spoken about the power of love which is the inspiration for Mrs. Mariana V. Vardinoyannis and the motivating force for “ELPIDA” for 34 years now: “Love is a feeling of strong affection and personal dedication, it is this strong feeling that cannot leave unmoved a mother of five children as it was our unforgettable founder Marianna V. Vardinoyannis. After 34 years and reaching to the present time, ELPIDA having run with a lot of love for the children a not easy always course, has succeeded to and completely changed the landscape of health in our country”.
The Administrator of the Oncologic Unit of Children “Marianna V. Vardinoyannis”, Mr. Manolis Papasavvas, has pointed out the invaluable contribution of Mrs. Marianna V. Vardinoyannis at the fight of childhood Cancer in our country: “We are here today and we are very proud to see what we have achieved, 3 to four children to be healed. If we turn the time back, none of us could ever imagine that we should have reached to that point and we would not have reached it, if Marianna Vardinoyannis did not exist and is the person that has changed everything for the childhood cancer. Due to her enormous love for the children, her combativeness and perceptiveness we can stand to date here and send a strong message that, the childhood cancer could and must be defeated. But we are also here to promise that, we shall continue to fight for the realization of Marianna V. Vardinoyannis Orama to be healed and the fourth child.
The President of the Hellenic Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Mrs. Sofia Ploychronopoulou has also welcomed the present audience by saying: “I am very happy and honored to be here representing the Hellenic Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. We also honor today the International Childhood Cancer Day but we honor it in a place which is very close to us and where it is still alive the memory of Marianna V. Vardinoyannis. I had the pleasure and honor to see the first steps of this work from the decade of 1990: the establishment of ELPIDA, the first efforts to create a group of Doctors, the great effort to establish the Unit of Transplant of Bone Marrow which was the first “child” of Marianna V. Vardinoyannis which has grown up and has done great things with considerable results as the time was passing by. On the year 2010 and after the completion of ELPIDA building all our departments have been transferred there. And since then, we work all of us together in the same building and in every level with the continuous efforts of doctors, nursing personnel, professionals of health, having achieved until to date excellent therapeutic results.
FIRST PANEL: LOVE AS A COMPASS AND SOURCE OF STRENGTH
In the first panel of the One Day Meeting which was coordinated from the Communicator, Mrs. Katerina Gangaki, healed children and parents of children with neoplasmatic diseases have shared their experiences pointing out that, the power of love was that power that made them standing up at the difficult fight against the childhood cancer. Mrs. Matina Kyriakou, the President of the Association “Alexandros- The sun will rise again” and mother of Alexandros who passed away, has spoken about the little Alexandros unfolding incidents from his life who, even at the most difficult moments for him did not give up but he was sharing strength with the other children who were under therapy with him. “My son has made a badge for the other children in which he had written “Remember, the sun will raise again”. The reality is that there is no sunset and will never exist!” as it is characteristically said Mrs. Kyriakou. Mrs. Evgenia Lafioti, a mother of a child that, it had stayed at the Gust House ELPIDA, has sharedher own experience by saying that, after her daughter’s disease “her family was united like a fist” while the care that she was seeing in the eyes of the medical and nursing personnel and the people of the Gust House ELPIDA was invaluable because she was feeling that she belongs somewhere. “We must find the power inside us in every difficulty. Love never falls short” said among others Mrs. Lafioti. Katerina Poga, a teenager patient who had stayed in the Gust House ELPIDA, has spoken for the enormous love of her mother who was always giving her power and courage even when she felt that she could not go on even more. Lastly, Chritina Fytili, a healed child that had stayed in the Guest House ELPIDA, a volunteer of the Guest House ELPIDA and a visual artist, has spoken about her own fight for life and for her parents love: “When the Gust House ELPIDA did not even exist, my father was sleeping in the car to be close to me while I was under therapy. My parents in order to empower me, were continuously smiling when I was with them but when I was going for therapy and follow the nurses, I was seeing them without been seen from them, to hug each other and then to collapse”.
SECOND PANEL: THE HEALING POWER OF LOVE
At the second panel the coordinator of which was the journalist, Mrs. Rea Vitali, the Directors of the clinics of the Oncologic Unit of Children “Marianna V. Vardinoyannis-ELPIDA”, had the opportunity to talk how love and hope might give strength to patients and to present also the invisible side of their job. The Pediatrist Hematologist-Oncologist, Director of the Transplant and Cellular therapies Unit, Mr. Evgenios Gousetis, has spoken among others how the environment in which they are hospitalized could affect their psychology” “When we started at Aghia Sofia , it was this grey thing without any color. And suddenly “ELPIDA” was established which was something completely different, a building full of color. Color is joy and strength and this is very important for the children”. The Pediatrist Oncologist, Director of the Oncologic Department, Mr. Dimitris Doganis, has emphasized the importance of trust that a child must feel: “Love is security, is trust. It is all together. But the most important is to look the child into the eyes. It is necessary for the child to feel that it is safe. When you are there you must hold it when it feels that is going to give up. All of us we have such examples that are concentrated in the meaning of love”. The Professor of Pediatrics- Pediatric Oncologic-Hematologic Unit, Mr. Antonis Kattamis has spoken of how a Doctor feels at the end of the day: “As a scientist, I will sit and analyze to find out what happened and then I will calm down. If I understand that I have done whatever I had to do and nothing else could have been done, then I am calm. What we do as a team very often when a strong tense exists, when a child passes away and we analyze what has been done, we hold each other from the hand, we have one moment of silence, we think about some things and we go on. This is the only way in my opinion that, you can go on”. The Pediatrist Hematologist-Oncologist, in charge-Director of Dept. of Children Hematology-Oncology, Mr. Vasileios Papadakis, has shared the case of a child that, gave an enormous fight for its life having as motivation the love for its family: “ A part of our work, for me at least , is to be able to analyze the why and how. This is important for me as a human being and helps me to go on. When something happens that does not fall to what it is expected, it causes me a double concern. I remember a child, a very serious case. The child passed away but it lived more than it was expected. We had of course done our scientific and medical efforts but it was something extreme. It could have been by accident. But my strong belief for this child that passed away is, even if the child could not realize it, that, it loved so much its family that, it did not want to die because that should have caused pain to the family. This is my personal belief of course. It cannot be grounded. But me, as a human being, I am absolutely sure”.
CONCLUSIONS/CLOSING DOWN
The person in charge of the Psychosocial Service of ELPIDA Guest House, presented the results of the two panels emphasizing the strong power of love and he talked about his personal experience after twenty five years next to the children with cancer and their parents: “Someone could say that love is not counted. But the Science confirms now to us that, love is the most powerful medicine for the human being. More specific, researches recommend that, love is not a simple emotional reaction. It is a power that guides the therapy, invigorates the hearts and lights up the way even in the most difficult moments”.
EXPERIENTIAL LABORATORY
The event has closed down with an emotional experiential laboratory from the group “Aei Ferein” and all the present people have created the loom of love full of wishes and thoughts of love and hope.
There were present, among others, in the event organized with the initiative of the Directress of Guest House, Mrs. Anna Panagopoulou and the person in charge of the Psychosocial service Mr. Dimitris Nanis: The B.D. members of the Advisory Committee of the Association ELPIDA Mrs. Athanasia Marinaki, Dora Dimopoulou, Nouli Manoli, Ketty Filippidou, Rita Pikrou-Moraitaki, the Scientific responsible of the Association “ORAMA ELPIDAS” Mr. Stelios Grafakos, the President of the Red Cross Dr. Antonis Avgerinos, the President of the Association “Floga” Mrs. Maria Tryfonidou, the President of the Association “PISTI” Mrs. Anastasia Stamatea, the President of the Association “Make a Wish” Mrs. Yvet Kosmetatou, the representative of the Civil nonprofit Company “Karkinaki” Mrs. Xenia Koukogianni, the President of the Foundation “Koinoniki Stirixi” Mrs. Anastasia Tsiakalou, the Head of the Nursing Service Directorate of “Aghia Sofia” Mrs. Efrosyni Vlachioti, the person in charge of the division of the Oncologic Unit of Children “Marianna V. Vardinogiannis-ELPIDA” Mrs. Alexandra Papasarantopoulou, the Principal of the Children High School “Aghia Sofia” Mrs. Angeliki Charalampopoulou and a lot of members and friends of the Association “ELPIDA” and the parents and children of the Guest House “ELPIDA”.
The Company Catering HRC Events was the sponsor of the reception after the end of the One Day Meeting.