Funds raised will help launch the Foundation

This foundation has been created to help the elderly. The most overlooked population!
As someone that took care of grandparents, I witnessed how overlooked they are and would like to make a difference.
The foundation will be distributing medical devices to the elderly suffering from metabolic, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and musculoskeletal diseases, as well as from cognitive impairment, dementia, and depression.

Your legacy is every life you've touched, every person whose life was moved or not, every person you've harmed or helped, THAT is your legacy.

My father, Pantelis Fakiris, also known to many as Peter, has touched many lives, he was a very generous and helpful man. He believed that good deeds were between you and God, they were not done to be boasted about and many of them were done anonymously. I've learned of his many good deeds after his passing. They touched something deep within me, THIS is my father's legacy...

My father was fortunate enough to become a successful businessman, and although he had many accomplishments, what I am most proud of him for is the number of people he brought joy to and his generosity.

When my father was diagnosed with cancer, he did not want anyone to know, despite living in pain he still made other people smile. Having watched my father deal with his last months of life reintroduced me to the man he was, I have never witnessed such strength from any other person. Apart from I did not want to visit him in the hospital, thinking it would prevent him from dying, I wanted to prolong his time here, I just wanted to run to him and hug him and feel protected from the world. When I arrived he was in so much pain but was determined to call my name and fight for me to take him home. My father's only concern about leaving this life was the fact that I would be without him, the one person who loved me without limits or conditions.

Our last days together were filled with listening to old Greek music and me reassuring him that it was ok for him to let go and go back to his home, the Greek island of Xios where he was born.

You never really know the impact someone has on your life until they are gone, I was so angry that I told my dad that it was ok to go. That is when I realized that true love is letting go of the ones you love so they no longer suffer.

Today the only thing I strive for is to make him proud. I, myself was diagnosed with cancer and ended up visiting the same hospital my dad did, it brought tears to my eyes. The fear of hearing the word cancer is indescribable, and yet I remember my father's strength while he was dealing with his diagnosis. By the time he was diagnosed, cancer had spread, and although he knew he had such little time left he laughed and dealt with it. Dad just kept on moving forward until the very end.

While helping my own maternal grandparents I have witnessed firsthand how grossly overlooked the elderly community is.

This is why I am creating this foundation so that his legacy may live on, a foundation that will be focused on helping the elderly with their health and expanding in the future to touch more lives just like my father did!

"MARINA! Stop being me and be you!" - Pantelis K. Fakiris