Memories of a President

I was going to meet the President of Malta in 1999. Tony Bugeja informed me that President Guido de Marco was to visit the Renal unit and to meet the four of us who had decided to ride from Malta to England. Quite daunting to say the least but with the press turning out in full force, it was just the sort of publicity we needed. I can still remember standing in those depressing corridors of the Renal unit waiting for his arrival and then Tony giving us the signal he had arrived. Small in stature but larger than life as he looked me straight in the eyes and held my hand with that trademark double handshake, and thanked me for what I was about to do. As Tony then took charge and took both the President and his entourage into the Ward I followed and watched in admiration as this man went about the business of meeting the public, in this case patients suffering from renal failure. The press of course hung on his every word and when he met the right person they enthusiastically clicked their cameras for the photo that would capture the moment . In this case it was a middle aged woman whom my wife later told me had been in the Ward with her. This poor woman had had her legs removed along with the odd fingers owing to diabetes. She was on dialysis and had gotten herself into a real state when she saw the President approach her bed. Tears flowed from this desperate soul as the President hung on her every word and held her hand while the cameras had a field day ready for tomorrow’s newspapers. Was this a PR opportunity which like all good politicians he was going to milk? It certainly looked that way however a few minutes later my cynicism was turned on it’s head when we left the unit and the press rushed off having got their article for tomorrow’s papers. Captain David Mifsud his Senior Aide de camp was trying to hurry the President up as he had a busy schedule however the President insisted on going back into the ward to speak to that same lady. He went back in and sat on her bed for a good 10 minutes trying to bring some sense to this woman’s life which had been turned upside down while the rest of us awaited his return and Captain David frantically kept looking at his watch.It was clear that this man cared and wanted to understand the problems faced by our patients and immediately he had left an impression with me. The next year we naively asked if the President could become an honourary member however being so involved in other charities we were politely informed that the President could not be “attached to one particular charity”. It’s now so ironic that this great man was for the past few years “attached” to our charity by means of the dialysis machines which we have supplied to the renal unit. I know from personal conversations with him that he was so grateful for the work Life Cycle has done on behalf of it’s patients and being the man he was it will not have gone un noticed that with his support we have made such strides in improving the quality of life for persons such as that lady who he had comforted and ultimately his own. Alan Curry LifeCycle Chairperson