Carmen Uscatu, Co-President and Founder of Give Life, shared a post on LinkedIn:
‘And you can endure present pains only if you can see them as part of a story that will yield future benefits.’
It started with: Who are you to ask me for a plan? – That question stuck with me because it really shook me at the time. It was 2022, if I remember correctly.
I wrote about this moment in my autobiography ‘The Year I Did Not Die‘.
That moment became one of revolt and deep frustration – what I’d call maximum helplessness – watching the building go up without any real plan to create what I later named a comprehensive childhood cancer center. In simple words: a place where every specialty dedicated to children with cancer could come together, coexist and grow. I felt so disappointed. And worse: I didn’t know what to do next.
But then a path opened: I got into the master’s program in Global Child Health at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, received a full scholarship from them for two years, and built a partnership with them and the Prinses Máxima Centrum, the largest children’s cancer center in Europe, based in Utrecht, Netherlands – a major research institution with over 600 scientists.
Since then, one of our oncologists finished a fellowship in neuro-oncology, another in leukemia, a third in stem cell transplantation. Doctors from Marie Curie – oncologists, radiation oncologists, and others – began PhDs and have mentorship from The Máxima and nurses are also involved in all kind of trainings.
None of this felt possible in 2022. Not even in my wildest dreams.
Just yesterday and today, talking with clinicians from Marie Curie Hospital and with the management, I realized how deeply they are willing to dream. To embrace the pain of growing. I see their endurance, and through them, I recognize my own.
It makes me feel lucky to know them. Lucky that I can contribute. And everyone who has ever donated to Dăruiește Viață or any other NGO is lucky too – because they’re helping build a dream where our children get better treatment, and better lives. For them and their families. Because they also have to endure this pain… and learn to see it as part of a story that will one day yield future benefits.”
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