Love, care, giving, fighting, courage and above all, hope in the victory for life: these are the pathways guiding the activity of the Association of Friends of Children with Cancer ELPIDA.

The Association (its name means ‘hope’) was founded in 1990 with the aim of helping children with cancer in all possible ways and with all possible means, and promoting the idea that children with cancer need care and support, raising Greek social awareness in this regard.

Today, 28 years later, ELPIDA’s vision has become reality. It’s most important achievements so far, are:

• The first Bone Marrow transplant Unit for Children in Greece (1992)

• The first Oncology Hospital for Children in Greece (2010)

• A Volunteer Bone Marrow Donor Centre, the first of its kind in Greece (2014)

• A five-storey Guest House for the children undertaking treatment and their families (1999)

• The first therapeutic Summer Campus for children with cancer (2016)

In ELPIDA’s plans for the near future is the creation of a Research Centre for Paediatric Cancer in co-operation with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of Harvard University as well as the upgrade of the Oncology Hospital to a Center of Excellence.