Life should be celebrated until the end, said President Edward Fenech Adami yesterday, during the prize-giving ceremony of the Nazzareno Vassallo award at Villa Messina, Rabat. This year the award was given to Alfred Debattista, a former police inspector who has undergone heart transplant surgery.
The award is given every year in recognition of deeds in support of the elderly.
The President said that nowadays people tend to discuss problems and controversies, such as whether embryos can be considered as life or whether physically debilitated people like Pier Giorgio Welby should be granted their wish to die.
Dr Fenech Adami quoted an argument used during the debate over whether the Italian man suffering from muscular dystrophy should be given the right to die. He said that life cannot be defined solely as the happy period of one’s life but also the troubles and the sicknesses.
This quality, said the President, is very evident in this year’s winner, Mr Alfred Debattista, who found the courage to fight back from his illness and after he had undergone heart transplant surgery.
Mr Debattista is a 69-year old former police inspector. In August 1999, after waiting for two years, he received a new heart from a 31-year old Gozitan.
On 9 May 200, nine months to the day after his successful operation, Mr Debattista founded the Transplant Support Group, which today has more than 200 members. He currently serves as the group’s president.
Speaking to The Malta Independent, Mr Debattista said that while he was waiting for a new heart, there was no support group from whom he could find comfort. Following his operation, he marked his rebirth by founding a support group, the members of which are people who have undergone a transplant or are waiting for one. Mr Debattista is also the assistant secretary of the Police Pensioners Association and the winner of the Senior Citizen of the Year Award 2003.
The award adjudicating committee was composed of Dr Daniel Micallef, Ms Sina Bugeja, Dr Donald Fiorentino and Ing. Alexander Tranter, while Dr George Hyzler acted as president.