What We Do

Housing for Patients

Active in Athens and Patras, AURORA’S housing programme provides free of charge accommodation for low-income patients who have undergone bone marrow transplant, enabling them to focus on what is important: getting well.

Aurora’s Home Services – from cleaning, to a food-shopping allowance and support from our volunteer patient committee, we aim to make patients feel at home in Aurora’s guest accommodation.

With an initial focus on the Greek capital, AURORA provides patient support by offering free accommodation to low-income patients whose primary residence is outside Athens, combining this with a range of services that help patients and families cope during this crucial period.

To undergo bone-marrow transplants or other specialized therapies, leukemia patients in Greece have to travel to Athens, Thessaloniki or Patras – which involves long periods of staying away from home.

For many of these patients, the financial strain of living away from home is considerable and often a key factor in their decision to pursue treatment for the disease.

At AURORA, we believe this shouldn’t be so. Our aim is to support patients facing financial hardship, helping them through this difficult time, by offering free accommodation located close to the city’s main transplant center.

HouseforPatients
HouseforPatients
HouseforPatients
HouseforPatients
HouseforPatients
HouseforPatients
HouseforPatients
HouseforPatients
HouseforPatients

Counseling and Support

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.

Hellen Keller

Fighting leukemia and other hematological diseases can be a lonely, alienating experience for patients, as well as for their family and loved-ones.

AURORA helps by providing psychological support for patients and their families, offering free counseling by specialized practitioners who are experienced in working with people facing a life-threatening condition.

We also aim to help patients and their nearest and dearest understand the processes involved through the provision of comprehensive information that will help guide their way through what is an emotionally trying period.

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For more information about Aurora’s Counseling and Psychological Support program “Eleni Fylactou” click here..

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Supporting Medical Institutions

At AURORA, we acknowledge that expediting the introduction of the most advanced therapeutic methods in leading health-care centers is a key way of supporting both patients and medical staff. We are working to ensure that patients in Greece and the doctors who treat them have the support they need within the country’s key medical centers.

Since its inception, Aurora has succeeded, through its own fundraising and through collaborations with other Foundations to provide necessary equipment to the Hematological unit of Evangelismos Hospital,

Did you know? The CAR-T cell therapy – now available at Evangelismos hospital through AURORA’s donation of state-of-the art equipment – is a revolutionary treatment offered to patients when all other options, including bone marrow transplant, have failed. It offers patients a chance at survival, making it a potentially life-saving, new form of therapy.

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Financing Science

Hematological oncology is a field that has changed considerably in the last 30 or 40 years […] things are getting better, the drugs are coming faster, and they are better and less toxic; so I am very optimistic about the future of this field.

Dr. George Canellos, Senior Physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston

AURORA helps the fight against leukemia by supporting the change-makers: by funding scientific research projects and providing research grants that will speed up efforts to find a cure for leukemia and other malignant blood diseases.

We believe that in science, like in philanthropy, the key lies in joining forces, far and wide. For this reason, we not only to support innovative, cutting-edge research, but also encourage exchange in the fight against hematological diseases between those working in leading centers of excellence in this fast-developing field.

In 2020 Aurora gave its first research grant for a 2 year research program at Evangelismos. The grant funds research aiming to create modified Natural Killer cells that can be used as an immunotherapeutic tool against cancer.