From its belief that the essence of victory over illness starts with good mental health and quality of life, Central Group has continued its Women Cancer project to help impoverished female cancer patients. They receive the hope to fight this terrible disease, with both their own motivation and that of people around them. Funds have been raised to support “Pink Park Village”, Thailand’s first non-profit holistic centre for underprivileged, terminally ill women suffering from stage-4 breast cancer. It is a project of the Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer Foundation under the Royal Patronage of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother.

Busaba Chirathivat, Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications at Central Group, noted that “Central Group is committed to playing a key role in developing Thais’ quality of life at every level. The company’s social activities are coordinated under the ‘Central Tham’ project. We have confidence that ‘positive attitude’ can be a medicine of happiness for patients facing disease, giving them more than 50% chance of a faster cure. Patients get to feel that they are not fighting the disease alone, but have the wiling support of their friends and families.

“We are aware of the seriousness of breast cancer. Women patients face not only physical pain, but also worries about finding funds for treatment, or a convenient place to convalesce between chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments in Bangkok. At ‘Pink Park Village’ of the Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer, the concept is to bring dignity to the last stage of life for poor patients. They receive round-the-clock physical and mental care from a team of experts as if they were family, in a soothing and quiet natural environment.”

Dr. Kris Chatamra, Chairman of the Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer Foundation, said, “Construction of the first phase of Pink Park Village is now complete, and it is now being prepared to start providing its services. We expect that it will open in 2020. In the meantime, the Foundation still needs to raise substantial funds for operating expenses and to provide care for patients. We have a committee to screen patients who will stay at Pink Park Village through the network of the Thai Red Cross Society, comprising doctors, nurses and social workers. The criteria are simply that they are suffering terminal-stage cancer and that they are lack in mean. All of our patients will receive excellent care from a team of doctors, nurses and volunteers, to bring quality to the remainder of their lives.

“Pink Park Village, managed by the Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer Foundation, started from the words of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother, who expressed a wish for ‘a sanctuary for women’ facing breast cancer. It is founded as a non-profit hospice for unprivileged breast cancer patients in the terminal stage who deserve the best possible care, both during treatment and in the final stages. Construction started in March 2016 on a plot of 121 rai in Nong Jork, Bangkok. Pink Park Village comprises a day care and activity centre with two hospice buildings (catering to 16 patients), as well as a convalescent centre for patients receiving treatment (taking 8 patients). There are also plans to build a Cancer Rehabilitation Centre with rooms for the remaining patients in the next phase.”

The Women Cancer project has been established to bring hope to women cancer patients since 2005, in line with UN Women, an organization for gender equality and women’s empowerment of the United Nations. Central Group has consistently acted in support of women’s causes, initiating activities in communities to give knowledge about women’s cancers, and raising funds through the company’s collection boxes for customers and getting support from trading partners. Marketing activities have been held across Central Retail businesses which include Central Department Store, Robinson, Central Food Hall, Tops Supermarket and CMG, as well as Central Restaurants Group. These have supported medical equipment such as Digital Mammograms which efficiently screen for breast cancer, and refurbishing convalescent wards for cancer patients at the National Cancer Institute of Thailand. At latest, the company has presented a total of 20 million baht to build the convalescent centre for poor breast cancer patients at Pink Park Village.

Central Group will continue in its mission to create a good quality of life for Thai people, and be a source of support and hope for women cancer patients to overcome their difficulties, with a positive attitude to fight for themselves and their loved ones.