Hospice Casa Sperantei charity plans to build a new, EUR 4.7 million hospice for the palliative care of the terminally ill in Romania, it has announced. Construction works on the new center will start in spring 2012 and should be finalized in the summer of 2013. The center will cover 3,400 sqm on three floors and will offer palliative care services through hospitalization, ambulatory, in day centers and at the cancer patients' homes. The new hospice will ensure around 700 hospitalizations each year for terminally ill cancer patients.

There are over 15,000 people in Bucharest who would need palliative care, and over 6,000 of them are cancer patients, according to Hospice Casa Sperantei.

The new hospice will have 100 employees. The EUR 4.7 million funding will cover the construction costs, as well as the running costs for the first nine months. Hospice Casa Sperantei so far raised EUR 2.6 million from donations.

Several companies and individuals in Romania contributed with donations for the new hospice. The Vodafone foundation and GlaxoSmithKline donated over EUR 500,000 each, while Raiffeisen Bank, Banca Comerciala Romana and Amgen, between EUR 100,000 and EUR 499,000 each. Companies like PepsiCo România, Porsche Finance Group România, Rotary, Ernst & Young, Regina Maria contributed with amounts between EUR 50,000 and EUR 99,000 each. The following made donations between EUR 10,000 and EUR 49,000: CMS Cameron McKenna, RBS Bank, Coca-Cola HBC, IBM, Alexandrion, Marialaura and Roberto Musneci, Porsche Inter Auto, Romtelecom, RTPR Allen & Overy, Whiteland Logistics, Sanders Polyfilms, Tim Wilkinson.

Hospice Casa Sperantei has been running a hospice in Brasov since 2003. It provides specialist care to children and adults with terminal or life-threatening illnesses. The charity was set up by Graham Perolls in 1992 and was initially active in Brasov.

Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com