Romanian Vlad Plăcintă, a resident of Botoşani county, in north-eastern Romania, has raised EUR 5 million over four years for the benefit of sick children, Digi24 reported.

He raised the money with the help of a dedicated website, where he published the stories of the seriously ill children in need of funding for their treatment. Besides the stories, he also presents receipts on how the funds were spent.

Over 50,000 people donated so far, from all over the world, and Plăcintă has given up on his day job to dedicate his time exclusively to the platform, called salveazaoinima.ro (Save a Heart).

The donations range from several hundred euros to sums of EUR 200,000. Most of them came from Romania, but help also came from England, Spain, Italy, the United States, Russia or Japan.

The founder of the platform says the idea for it is modeled after a similar one in the US. He personally checks all those requesting help through the website. He verifies the medical documents, calls the hospital to confirm the sum needed for the treatment and to receive a medical letter, and afterwards places the campaign on the website.

For the future, he plans to launch a similar platform, dedicated to adults who need money for costly surgery or treatment.

(Photo: salveazaoinima.ro)