Cudeca Foundation celebrated the closing ceremony of the "Joan Hunt, One in a Million" campaign with a fundraising of more than €400,000 accompanied by representatives of institutions such as La Caixa Foundation, Junta de Andalucía, Diputación de Málaga, Ayuntamiento de Benalmádena, as well as media, sponsors, donors and members of the Malaga community, Cudeca presented the results of the campaign and the project plan of the paediatric unit with emotion and great commitment.

One of the emotional moments of the ceremony was the presentation of the Cudeca Insignia to the Cudeca Goldies, a group of British origin who have been holding charity events exclusively for Cudeca since 2014 as representatives of the English-speaking community, and the announcement of the presentation of the Cudeca Insignia to the Library of Arroyo de la Miel (Benalmádena) for its long history of solidarity through its street markets to help maintain the palliative care offered by Cudeca on behalf of the Spanish-speaking community.

This campaign aimed to pay tribute to Joan Hunt, who was a pioneer of palliative care in Spain and founder of Cudeca (recently one year after her death), and to raise €1,000,000 to create and manage the Paediatric Palliative Care Unit for 4 years. www.unaentreunmillon.es

During the closing ceremony of the "Joan Hunt, One in a Million" campaign held yesterday, Thursday, 30 June 2022 at the Dr Yusuf Hamied Cudeca Institute, Cudeca's Chief Executive and Medical Director, Dr Marisa Martín Roselló, explained the project of this unit which will provide specialised comprehensive care and compassionate accompaniment to children and adolescents, as well as their families including not only parents, but also siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles... in short, the whole family. An expert team of professionals (doctors, psychologists, nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, music, art and play therapists, teachers...) and volunteers will be on hand to care both at home and at the Cudeca Centre with the Paediatric Palliative Care Day Unit and in room nº10, Joan Hunt's home, the Inpatient Unit. In Marisa´s own words: "I am very excited about the idea of finally being able to build this Cudeca Paediatric Palliative Care unit. The need for paediatric end-of-life care is real. It is an honour to be able to offer through Cudeca a unique space for children, their families... and pets to feel at home. It is very important to us that these families know they are not alone, and I am sure Joan wanted this too. Thank you all so much for helping us to make this possible". Dr. Marisa Martín Roselló was supported by one of Cudeca's trustees and Director of the Radiation Oncology Unit of the Regional Hospital, Dr. Ismael Herruzo, to present the financial results of the campaign, announcing the magnificent collection of €400,000 thanks to all the institutions, collaborators, sponsors, donors and organisers of solidarity events. The €1,000,000 target is expected to be reached with the help of the benefactor of the Cudeca Institute Building, Dr. Yusuf Hamied, after whom it is named.

Martin Nathan, CEO of Talk Radio Europe, one of the most powerful English-language radio stations on the Costa del Sol, Murcia and Valencia and the originator of the name of the campaign, attended the closing ceremony where he told the story of how he came up with the name of the campaign. His close relationship with the late Joan Hunt for more than 20 years marked the moment he learned of her death. At that moment he realised that: "Joan was a one in a million woman and came up with the name "one in a million" to seek a goal as lofty as her, i.e. one million euros to make Cudeca's founder's last wishes come true: to make her home a home for so many families in the last moments of life", as he explained in his speech.

The Cudeca Goldies, a British based group who have been running charity events for Cudeca since 2014, were chosen to receive the Cudeca Insignia 2022, to show the Foundation's respect for the tireless work of this group who have been able to raise over €150,000 over the years exclusively for the Cudeca Foundation.  Suzy Rowe, leader of the Cudeca Goldies group, added with emotion: "It is a great honour for me personally to receive this award from Cudeca in recognition and I know I speak for the whole group when I say that it is a privilege to be able to help this Foundation in its work to provide palliative care to so many people in need, and we will continue to do so for many years to come because it is our commitment to Joan Hunt and to Cudeca". In addition, the Cudeca Foundation announced the award of the Cudeca Insignia for the representation of the Spanish-speaking community to the Library of Arroyo de la Miel (Benalmádena) for their tireless work in selling books at their charity markets, which will be presented at a later date.

Finally, the paediatrician who will carry out paediatric care from the paediatric palliative care unit, Dr Ana Devesa, explained the project in detail and added: "It is important for everyone to understand that the needs of a child or adolescent in palliative care are very specific and quite different from the needs of adults. For the youngest, palliative care begins with the diagnosis. The palliative care process is much longer than for adults, so the resources we need to implement our care are urgent and will determine the quality of care. I am very happy to be part of this project and I have full confidence in the community's ability to help us develop it to the best of our ability”.

          
Junta de Andalucía                                                                         "la Caixa"                                                     Talk Radio Europe

     
Cudeca Goldies                                                          Colegio Oficial de Enfermería de Málaga