ROW-mania challenge: British NGO launches fundraiser for Romanian hospices

Hospices of Hope charity has launched the ROW-mania fundraising challenge, aiming to raise funds towards the salaries of nurses working with the Hospice Casa Sperantei in Romania.

The ROW-mania challenge is to row for 10 hours (an hour a day) and raise at least GBP 100. Participants do not have to leave home to do this. “All they need is a boat - either a rowing machine or an improvised model – a couple of planks of wood and a couple of broom handles will do!” the NGO explained.

The distance from London to Romania is 1,500 miles, and the charity is asking at least 150 people to join in and help Graham Perolls, the executive director and founder of Hospices of Hope, to cover this distance.

If at least 150 people sign up to the challenge and raise GBP 100 each, the NGO would be able to pay for a specialist hospice nurse in Romania.

Graham Perolls will lead the ROW-mania challenge from May 14th. He is using a children's inflatable dinghy and two pieces of wood found in the garden.

Perolls explained that “the situation in Romania and other countries where we work is grave.”

“Recently, Romania discharged nearly all cancer patients from hospitals to make way for Coronavirus patients. This included a 13-year-old boy with a brain tumor who was in terrible pain. Our hospice doctor visited him and quickly brought the pain under control, so much so that he asked his mother why he still needed to take morphine when it did not hurt anymore. He spent Easter happily playing on his X box with his brother. But many other patients across the country are feeling completely abandoned. Our hospices are concentrating on home care visits and in-patient care. An additional member in the nursing team would make a significant difference to the number of seriously ill patients we can care for,” he said.

Hospices of Hope’s projects in South-Eastern Europe are facing a massive loss of income, and the charity is worried that services for people with a terminal illness will have to close, the NGO explained.

Those who want to join the ROW-mania challenge can sign up here. Alternatively, donors can also sponsor Graham Perolls in his voyage starting May 14th.

Graham Perolls founded Hospices of Hope in 1991 following a trip to Romania. Hospice Casa Sperantei was established in 1992. It now has in-patient hospices in Brasov and Bucharest and a children’s therapy center in Adunatii Copaceni. Hospices of Hope also supports Hospice Emanuel in Oradea.

(Photo: Chernetskaya/ Dreamstime)