Bequest buoys AIDS research.A man whose son died of AIDS in 1991 and his wife a year later of a heart attack has left his estate valued at almost $490,000 to an AIDS research facility in a country where he sought refuge from the grief over his double loss: Cuba. In making the bequest bequest: see legacy. , Doug Blanchard had sought the help of Rev. Ed Schmitt, then a priest at St. Agnes church in North Vancouver North Vancouver, city (1991 pop. 38,436), SW British Columbia, Canada, on Burrard Inlet of the Strait of Georgia, opposite Vancouver, of which it is a suburb. Shipbuilding, woodworking, and the shipping of grain, lumber, and ore are the chief industries. , according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Monica Farrell, his bequest executor executor n. the person appointed to administer the estate of a person who has died leaving a will which nominates that person. Unless there is a valid objection, the judge will appoint the person named in the will to be executor. . He was also assisted by David Hamid, who was then director of ecumenical affairs and relations for the Anglican Consultative Council The Anglican Consultative Council or ACC is one of the four "Instruments of Communion" of the Anglican Communion. It was created by a resolution of the 1968 Lambeth Conference. in London. After sorting out bureaucratic details, the bequest was recently given to the AIDS department at Centro de Ingenieria Genetica y Biotechnologia (CIGB CIGB Commission Internationale des Grands Barrages (French: International Commission on Large Dams) ) after Mr. Blanchard died in July 2001. "He loved the people of Cuba and did all he could to improve their homes and begin successful farming," wrote Ms. Farrell in a letter to Rev. Philip Wadham, regional mission co-ordinator for Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. and the Caribbean of the Anglican Church of Canada. Ms. Farrell, who was a neighbor of Mr. Blanchard, added, "It's amazing how many people contributed to his cause once they knew of it. I lost count of the number of parcels in school supplies and toys and vitamins we packed up and sent in between his trips." According to Ms. Farrell, Mr. Blanchard's gift would "fulfill a promise that he had made to his son "to try to make a difference in the search for a cure." Dr. Carlos A. Duarte Cano, head of the AIDS department at CIGB, said he and his colleagues were "quite surprised" when they received notice of the gift. He added, "When we knew better about Doug's life and motivations we felt very touched with his sufferings and sensibility and how he loved our country and committed himself to help the Cuban people at the end of his life." He said that the money would fund research projects of CIGB, in collaboration with other Cuban research centres, which are aimed at developing new drugs or a vaccine against AIDS. It will also be used to buy equipment, reagents and laboratory supplies. Cuba has a 0.05 per cent AIDS incidence rate, "one of the lowest in the world," said Dr. Cano. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion