Oncology Center receives $1 million

RIGA (BNS) - The Latvian Oncology Center has received a donation of $1 million for radio-therapy equipment required for treatment of patients with cancer, Diena newspaper reported Sept. 1.

The center has long wanted this equipment, but the Latvian government had been unable to grant the required funds for several years running.

The donation comes from a Latvian-born Australian, Tatjana Buks, who gave it to the Latvian Cancer Foundation with the instructions that the money be used to buy the radio-therapy equipment.

The donation will be used to buy the radio-therapy equipment chosen by Buks among models offered by the world's leading companies. She herself visited the Oncology Center to examine the current situation.

The equipment, however, needs a number of accessories and it will cost another $1 million, if advanced techologies are to be used throughout, Oncology Center director Gunars Lasmanis said.

The center will allocate about 200,000 lats ($328,000) from its own funds for the purpose, and initially some of existing accessories can be used. The Latvian Welfare Ministry has also promised some support and intends to ask for 400,000 lats to be allocated for accessories from the national budget in 2001 and 300,000 lats in 2002.