On Tuesday, 20^th January 2009, the Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Unit at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS)  (http://www.pims.gov.pk/index.htm)  was inaugurated  in a sober but impressive ceremony. The Bone Marrow Transplant unit at PIMS, Pakistan has been established as a result of a partnership between PIMS and Cure2Children (C2C) Foundation of Italy.

Present at the ceremony were Pakistani Federal  Minister for Health, Mir Aijaz Khan Jhakrani, the Italian Ambassador to Pakistan, Mr. Vincenzo Prati, Executive Director PIMS, Dr. Abdul Majeed Rajput, Managing Director Pakistan Baitul Maal(http://www.baitulmaal.org/) , Zamarrud Khan, and Italian paediatric onco-hematologist,  Dr. Lawrence Faulkner.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Lawrence Faulkner, expressed his excitement and enthusiasm to be a part of this noble cause. He stated, “It is a privilege for me to be here and to work together with all of you. The professionalism, enthusiasm and commitment of so many people who whole-heartedly devoted extra time and energy to this project has been a very striking and enriching experience.”

Dr. Faulkner, , member Board of Directors Cure2Children (C2C), while addressing the inauguration ceremony, said, “Even though I see this already as a major success, more help will be needed from governments, health authorities, local administrations, involved professionals, other NGOs, donors and volunteers to build on this initial success and make it sustainable and long-lasting.”

Acknowledging the efforts of C2C’s donors, Dr. Faulkner said, “Some of you know that the initial driving force behind Cure2Children came largely from a group of parents who lost their child to cancer. We would thus be very happy and honored to extend our support to the care of children with leukemia and tumors at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.”

“The parents of Simone Montomoli are another example of highly motivated parents. In this case, unfortunately, their child could not be saved, but, like many other parents who endure this devastating experience, they strived to make sure that their child did not die in vane and that his death would translate into something positive. Even though they are not here with us today for health-related reasons, I want to convey their gratitude for accepting to entitle the Bone Marrow Transplant unit at the Children’s Hospital to the memory of their beloved son Simone.”

“Things are done by people, people with the appropriate drive and motivation. I want to thank Khalid Zaman, Sadaf Khalid and their daughter Ayesha, whose hardship has been the basis for all this. Sadaf and Khalid are like brother and sister to me, and have been a source of strength and inspiration for myself as well for all at the Cure2Children Foundation. They devoted to this project the same commitment, love and dedication they had for curing their daughter, they deserve most of the credit for starting this and I would ask all of you to please applaud them”, he said.

“I think that this project is a small but important contribution in the direction we are all longing for, working together on shared values and principles across cultures and religions. Nothing is more important than our children”, said Dr. Faulkner as the closing words of his speech.

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