MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss on Friday plans for the expansion of the Federal Center for Children’s Hematology, Oncology and Immunology in Moscow, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The president will meet with the leadership of the Federal Center to discuss plans to enlarge it, the Kremlin spokesman said.
"In connection with the tenth anniversary of the Centre, the president will receive its heads Alexander Rumyantsev and Galina Novichkova, who participated in its creation from the very beginning," he said. "They will discuss how it operates, as Putin personally controlled its construction as well," he said. "Besides, they seem to have plans to enlarge it, which they want to share with the president," the spokesman said.
He reminded reporters that ten years ago Putin met with Dima Rogachev, a boy with leukemia. "The boy wrote to him [Putin], asking him to come, to have some tea and pancakes with him," Peskov said.
"The president visited him, and an idea was born to build (the Centre)," he continued. "It was after this meeting that the Federal Centre for Children’s Hematology, Oncology and Immunology was born," he said. The boy died, but the Centre was named after him in his memory, Peskov added.
The spokesman stressed that the Centre has a special status for the president, and stays under the president’s patronage.
The Dmitry Rogachev Federal Center for Children’s Hematology, Oncology and Immunology is a unique research and treatment facility. It provides effective high-technology stationary and outpatient treatment of children, develops and introduces single internationally recognised protocols of therapy of blood diseases, malignant neoplasms, immune system diseases and other serious children’s diseases. The Centre’s clinic has 220 beds and can receive up to 700 primary patients per year.