Budapest Airport's Representative Running For Patients With Heart Disease

  • 16 Jul 2012 9:00 AM
Budapest Airport's Representative Running For Patients With Heart Disease
Budapest Airport will also be represented at this year’s New York City Marathon (4th November 2012). Aviation director Kam Jandu will be amongst the runners in the Big Apple, with the added aim of encouraging interested communities to support patients with heart disease. It is possible to follow Kam’s preparations on Facebook, along with a direct link to the website of the organization collecting donations, JustGiving. It is also possible to support the Hungarian Heart Diseases Children’s Hospital and a British organization with similar aims.

Kam has already established a separate club on Facebook, also accessible from Budapest Airport’s Facebook page, in connection with the event due to be held in November. Thus, those who ‘like’ Budapest Airport can also follow the charity initiative lasting several months.

Kam will regularly update his page with the latest news and the status of his preparations, and it will take just a click to join the increasing number of supporters. In parallel with tracking Kam’s preparations, it is also possible to sign up for the charity initiative. (This is a quite a usual feature of the world’s major marathon’s like London, New York and others) Kam’s page collecting donations in connection with the New York City Marathon is already accessible on JustGiving, a fundraising website specializing in collecting pecuniary and other donations online, which provides various ways of sending donations to the two foundations aiming to help cardiac patients.

Donations offered on the English and Hungarian language pages of JustGiving will be used to support the Hungarian Heart Diseases Children’s Hospital and the British Heart Foundation. The aim is to raise as much money as possible for each of the two foundations. The initiative will last until the start of the New York City Marathon in November.

It is possible to make pecuniary and other donations through an online credit card transaction, via PayPal or even by text message. It is important to note that the technical solution required to collect donations for the Hungarian foundation is expected to be in place in the coming weeks. Until then, donations can already be offered in several different ways, as described on the website.

Budapest Airport fully supports Kam’s initiative as a company committed to corporate social responsibility and promoting healthy way of life as shown by numerous previous projects of this nature. Two years ago, five executives joined a charity initiative and collected donations for a bone marrow transplant with a 10 km airport run. In addition, Budapest Airport has provided support running into hundreds of millions of forints for neighboring municipalities and communities.

Most recently, the company made a significant donation to the Department of Aircraft and Ships at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, which is a clear indication that even at a time of crisis, the airport operator still considers the various forms of corporate social responsibility to be important. Budapest Airport worked out a comprehensive strategy for responsible operation, also earmarking significant funds for such purposes, but due to the bankruptcy of Malév and the disproportionately large increase in land tax, it has been forced to review and temporarily suspend its donation policy.

“We are happy to support Kam’s efforts, because as a responsible company we believe it is important to support worthy causes, even under today’s difficult economic climate,” commented Jost Lammers, the CEO of Budapest Airport.

“Heart disease affects nearly everyone one way or another, if for no other reason, then because we all have family members or friends fighting such health problems. Unfortunately this has been the case with my family and myself as well during the past four years, which is one of the reasons why I decided to support this cause.” added aviation director Kam Jandu. “I am very hopeful that out of the more than 10 000 people who follow Budapest Airport, many more will join the initiative, whereby we can save lives together.”

Source: Budapest Airport

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