LONDON, UK- A group of Biomedical and Clinical Scientists at King’s College Hospital took the lead and initiated a cake sale within the Pathology Department to fundraise for the Super Typhoon Haiyan victims in the Philippines, a great conversion of their scientific intellect into a good charitable work.
Volunteering for the Typhoon Philippine Appeal of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), Ms Katherine Hodson, a Biomedical Scientist at the Blood Sciences Laboratory sought approval of the laboratory management and GSTS Pathology Human Resources to conduct a cake sale within the clinical laboratory. Coincidentally, a plan for a morning cake with a cake raffle has also taken shape at the Specialist Clinical Biochemistry Department under the charitable minds of Biomedical Scientists Jaco Pieterse, Catrin Hammond, and Marben Orfiano.
The two group of charity event planners then collaborated to conduct the cake sale all at once. This was then backed-up by the pathology management and administrator thus including the announcement of the event during the Tuesday Brief Meeting as well as thru internal communications.
As a result of the laudable cooperation and generosity of the management and admin, scientists, laboratory assistants, technical officers, and the whole pathology staff, the cake sale was a huge success. The numbers of cake donors were remarkably surprising as the supposedly one-day event has turned into two. As a result, the two-day cake sale has raised more than £400.00.
“I just realised I have so much while the victims lost everything. With a little bit of effort, we can make a huge difference”, says Mr Pieterse.
“I’ve always had an interest in helping those less fortunate than myself. It just put all those small worries about everyday life into perspective for me. Having spent 3 months volunteering in Brazil and worked in Tanzania for 6 months I’ve seen firsthand the poor conditions people around the world have to live with, and when something like Typhoon Hiayan devastates a country there’s so much we can all do to help. So when Kings advertised for their fundraising events, I jumped at the chance to contribute,” expresses Ms Hodson.
In addition to the cake sale, a cake raffle as also been organised. Mr Pieterse has volunteered to bake 3 delightful cakes as prizes and the tickets will be drawn on 6th December. The pathology staff also kind-heartedly participated on the raffle so good sales on tickets is expected.
For Filipinos, the monies that have been raised are actually a plus. The thoughts and concerns for the victims are more of great importance.
“I am so thankful for my colleagues for helping us with this initiative. Each penny we raise will surely of great help to our beneficiaries. We might say it’s just nothing but it might actually be enough to help one survive,” says Marben Orfiano, a Filipino Biomedical Scientist, and the Trustee Chairman of The Cordillera Connection (TCC).
According also to Ms Asia Iqbal, another biomedical scientist and one of the active organiser, it is always good to help others, most especially on this time of crisis.
Ms Yuk Inn Leung, a laboratory technical officer , and who has greatly helped on raffle tickets sales says, “I don’t know what it feels like to lose everything, or a family, but I know that I can do all my best to make bit of difference for those who have.”
Over all, the total of the charity event has raised more than £600. Half of these funds will go to Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and the other half will go to TCC. This share amounts to 21,000.00 in Philippine peso.
TCC will add its share to the proceeds that it will raise from the Charity event it has organised on 7th December in Kilburn. The funds then will be used to purchase basic goods as relief goods to the victims of typhoon in Palo, Leyte, one of the neglected worst hit areas. Originally, TCC has planned to help rebuild a school or put up a community project. This has changed when a source has informed that food is still a priority.
THE CORDILLERA CONNECTION 