PL party whip and former health minister Godfrey Farrugia – who is currently undergoing cancer-related treatment and is recovering from major surgery – said that he is thrilled to see that all the time and effort he put into the Oncology Centre project has finally bore fruit.

The Oncology Centre which is adjacent to Mater Dei Hospital – a project kick-started during the previous legislature – was inaugurated yesterday.

Writing on Facebook, Dr Farrugia – a doctor by profession – wrote: “Thrilled to see that all the time and effort that I put into this project to ensure that our countrymen have the best treatment options in cancer therapy, has finally bore fruit, by being made available to mothers, fathers, grand parents and children alike."

He continued: “When one's life is severely under threat, and reflection and thinking take the place of a packed daily routine, thoughts occasionally drift towards regrets.
“Time begrudged my family and spent into endless days of hard work for a public cause starts to seem like time lost, wasted.
“Such melancholy musings however, vanish in an instant when I imagine the face of one sick patient light up at the knowledge that her/his country and compatriots can offer him/her a cure. 
“The fuel which keeps a sick man's engine going is hope. What heals us is the reassurance of access to care, followed by the care itself.

“And with the opening of this state-of-the-art, excellently equipped Oncology Centre, we can give that hope, that reassurance to our vulnerable, much-loved cancer patients.
“I wish to thank my predecessors, the hard working team that sustained me when I was minister, Konrad, Chris and all those involved in making this dream come true for our citizens,” the former health minister wrote.