I worked for NHS Blood and Transplant for almost 15 years. This organisation is one of the best in the world in the related field. Working there I always thought how lucky people living in the UK are. We can receive medical treatment as soon as we need it and we usually take it for granted. About 90% of children diagnosed with leukemia in UK can be cured. I was very upset when I learnt that despite a very high percentage of onco-haematology diseases among the Georgian population, there is no centralised blood transfusion and transplantation services in Georgia at all. Patients with leukaemia do not get diagnosed properly and do not get appropriate treatment because of the lack of infrastructure, medical equipment, trained staff, funding, medications and so on. This situation forces many of the sick people and parents of the sick children to borrow money (if they can), often sell their personal belongings, including whatever property they might have, and go abroad in order to be correctly diagnosed and treated including bone marrow transplantation. This is why I decided to open IMEDI (International Medical Education and Development Initiative), a non-profit company, to help those in Georgia who are the most vulnerable: seriously ill children. IMEDI means HOPE in Georgian. Sending used medical equipment so very gracefully donated by NHSBT (UK) to the Association for Aid to Children Suffering from Leukemia, located in Tbilisi, is the first stage of this process. The second stage-setting up the equipment and training the local staff to use it correctly. The equipment might be considered out of date in this country but it will be saving lives in Georgia. My Bristol friend Simon Munden helped me to collect the equipment from 3 different NHSBT sites - Oxford, Sheffield, Bristol, but we need to pay for the transportation it to Georgia.

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