Mr. Bengt Nilsson Receives a Lithuanian State Decoration

On the occasion of Statehood Day (Coronation of King Mindaugas) on the 6^th of July, the President of the Republic of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė, awarded Lithuanian citizens and foreign nationals with state decorations for their merits to the Republic of Lithuania and for promoting of the name of Lithuania to the world.

 

In her congratulatory speech, President Grybauskaitė emphasized that the awarded persons had contributed, in a major way, to consolidating the State of Lithuania:

 

Your work strengthens Lithuanian statehood and international standing. You promote Lithuania as a creative and talented nation around the world. Your actions and dedication encourage all citizens to take on a more active stance, feel more confident and trust the state.

 

I sincerely congratulate you on the occasion of Statehood Day and wholeheartedly thank you for your contribution to strengthening and promoting our country. I present these honorable awards to you, wishing that they will inspire you to do more work and to implement more ambitious ideas in the future.

 

We highly appreciated and enjoyed the opportunity to escort our loyal friend, Mr. Bengt Nilsson, to the presidential palace on this celebratory day. Having experienced his personal drama (the oncological disease of his daughter Anna), Mr. Nilsson has been offering a helping hand to children with malignant diseases in Sweden and in other countries, as well. The association between Childhood Cancer Fund Rugutė and Mr. Bengt Nilsson began in 2007, and this man has constantly offered us every kind of help for the past four years.

 

Mr. Nilsson has been organizing campaigns of kindness for Lithuanian children in the schools of Sweden since 2007. During these campaigns the Swedish students are encouraged to pick and wrap Christmas gifts. The Swedish team arrives to Lithuania before Christmas to deliver the gifts to Lithuanian children in the hospitals of Kaunas and Vilnius.

 

In Sweden, a lot of emphasis is given to joy treatment. Mr. Nilsson, willing to provide joy and many inspirational moments to Lithuanian children who have survived some of the harshest medical procedures, invited them to the Feast of Joy that he organized in Sweden on 28-09-2008 and on 05-09-2010. Both times our children were transported to Sweden by a private airplane that Mr. Nilsson sent to Lithuania. Mr. Nilsson constantly organizes fund-raising events in Sweden, and dedicates all the funds to improve the quality of treatment and social care of children with oncological diseases.

 

Mr. Bengt Nilsson’s decision to dedicate his life to children with oncological diseases is an example all of us could follow, and we are very happy that the President of Lithuania awarded this very modest man with the state order For Merits to Lithuania. We have no doubts that Mr. Bengt Nilsson has absolutely earned this award.

 

We sincerely thank Mr. Bengt Nilsson and his family for their noble work that has given sense
to humanity, and for their help they have been providing to children with oncological diseases
in Sweden, Lithuania, Poland and Belarus.

 

 

Photo Gallery – The state award of the Republic of Lithuania presented to Bengt Nilsson