President pledges to tend to children’s wishes

PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos yesterday met with children cancer patients and their parents as part of this year’s Make A Wish Foundation week.

The meeting took place at the presidential palace in the morning with Papadopoulos promising “direct help” to the foundation so that more children’s wishes could be made a reality and that their families were financially supported.

Speaking to the children, the president said he himself was very familiar with cancer (four years ago he was treated for cancer of the throat), adding that it was a beatable disease thanks to advances in medicine and available treatments, as well as an individual’s will to live.

Papadopoulos said children cancer patients were in need of government support and that of society, and asked Make A Wish president George Penindaex to send a letter so that the government could help directly.

Addressing each and every one of the children and their guardians, Papadopoulos said the presidential palace “is like your home and the home of every citizen”.

Penindaex said the children’s visit was part of a series of events the foundation was holding in co-operation with DIKO’s youth group for Nicosia and Kyrenia during a week dedicated to the ‘Make A Wish’ children. The week started last Friday with an art exhibition at Famagusta gate. The exhibition is open daily until Friday from 6pm to 9pm.

The week will include a theatrical performance, a Go-Karts tournament, a Futsal tournament, a fair at Acropolis Park and a road collection.

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