MOBILE DIGITAL MAMMOGRAPHY MACHINE WORTH 700,000 EUROS DELIVERED BY PRINCESS KATHERINE’S FOUNDATION TO MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF SERBIA

Belgrade, 25 June 2009 – Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Alexander II and Crown Princess Katherine organized a press conference at the White Palace for the delivery of a 700,000 Euro mobile digital mammography machine to the Serbian Ministry of Health.

Speakers at the press conference were: HRH Crown Princess Katherine, Prof. Dr. Tomica Milosavljevic, Minister of Health, Prof. Dr. Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, Speaker of the House and Prof. Dr. Srbobran Trenkic, Director of the Clinical Centre in Nis.

Also present beside the speakers where: Dr. Nevena Karanovic and Dr. Tomislav Stantic, State Secretaries for Health, Dr. Petar Bosnjakov, Head of Radiology at the Clinical Centre Nis as well as the members of the Woman’s Health Initiative.

Princess Katherine emphasized: “This is the first mobile digital mammography unit in South Eastern Europe, and its significance is tremendous. This device will help reduce breast cancer mortality in Serbia, and will extend the lives of many women. I am determined we should all unite and combat this terrible disease, breast cancer, and save women’s lives.

I would like to very warmly thank the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation from New York for their very generous donation and all parties that contributed in making this project such a success. It is extremely important we work together. The women of our country need us! They cannot do this work alone - none of us is so powerful that we can eliminate cancer by ourselves. We need each other; because only by working together we can reach the women of Serbia - the women of every country – so that breast cancer can be defeated”.

Prof. Dr. Tomica Milosavljevic, Minister of Health of Serbia thanked Their Royal Highnesses pointing out that “Princess Katherine’s Foundation very successfully makes dreams become reality”. This joint endeavour is the best proof of that. He also stressed “healthy citizens of Serbia is the joint mission we have”.

Prof Dr. Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, Speaker of the House said in her speech that the members of the Parliament and Women of Serbi pointing out that “the work of Princess Katherine’s Foundation is an example of how to love Serbia, because people who care about the women of Serbia, care about the country”.

Prof. Dr. Srbobran Trenkic, Director of the Clinical Centre of Nis expressed his greatest gratitude for this donation and pointed out “this donation will definitely improve statistics in that region and make Clinical Centre services more available for women from rural parts of that region”.

This mobile digital mammography machine is provided thanks to the donation that Princess Katherine’s Foundation obtained in collaboration with Lifeline Humanitarian Organization New York and donation from the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation This is a state of the art mobile digital mammography and its market value is 700,000 Euro.

Crown Princess Katherine’s Foundation delivered this machine to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia and they in turn will hand it over to the Clinical Centre in Nis according to the National Strategy Against Breast Cancer and the unit it is assigned to South of Serbia.

The mobile digital mammography machine consists of vehicle, cabin and trailer where the mobile digital unit is situated. Beside the digital mammography apparatus there is also a waiting room and doctor’s room. The digital mammography is manufactured by General Electric and the trailer is made by Bence of the United Kingdom.

The idea of acquiring a mobile digital mammography machine came from Dr Hedvig Hricak, Head of Radiology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York. Dr. Hricak worked on a similar project in Croatia where she helped the Croatian Ministry of Health to implement a National Screening Program. We are very grateful to Dr Hedvig Hricak for all her very hard work and expert advice in making this project possible.

This mobile digital unit will help reduce the mortality rate from breast cancer and extend the life of many Serbian women.