FUNDING JOY OF WAR HERO BEN WOUNDED war hero Ben Parkinson has been told the Government will fund six more months of rehab, in a victory for his parents. The Lance Bombardier, the most seriously injured soldier to survive the Afghanistan war, was told he was being recommended for a medical discharge from the Army last September. But he was allowed to remain in service and an assessment on Thursday ruled he could continue his MoD-funded speech and mobility rehabilitation. Para Ben, 27, from Doncaster, South Yorks, was “delighted” by the news. The turnaround marks a massive victory for campaigning
By DAVID WILLETTS
mum Diane Dernie, 52, and The Sun — which has backed Ben all the way. Mrs Dernie said: “We’re over the moon. This takes Ben right up to the summer when he will be carrying the Olympic torch. The Sun’s support, right from the injury to now, has helped him. There’s no doubt.” Ben, of 7 Para, Royal Horse Artillery, lost both legs, broke his back and suffered brain injuries in a Taliban bomb blast. If he was forced out of the Army, his parents would have to fork out the £2,000 weekly fee for his specialist care.
Victory . . . hero Para Ben
Kids’ arty WITH 40,000 STILL IN appetites
KIDS are more likely to eat if their food forms a picture, a study found. There should be seven different items in six colours, with the main part — such as meat — at the front of the plate. Scientists from universities in London and New York asked 23 kids and 46 adults to rate photos. One said: “Parents serve food in a way that is not appealing to them.”
VILE HOMES...HERE’S HOW ADOPTION CAN WORK WHEN the horror of Romania’s decrepit orphanages was first exposed, Brits rallied to the cause.
They arrived with lorry-loads of toys and clothes in the early Nineties. And some showed even more compassion by adopting these poor kids. The children left to rot in these horrendous institutions have evil Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu — who was overthrown and executed,
FACEBOOK BLOW
A judge has ordered Facebook and Twitter to name users who revealed where police were doing B-tests in Brazil.
By
SHARON HENDRY
along with wife Elena, on Christmas Day in 1989 — to blame for their suffering. His ban on birth control and abortion resulted in thousands of healthy but unwanted children being handed over to state care. Despite closure of the horrific orphanages being a condition of Romania’s EU entry in 2007, The Sun has learned that around 40,000 children are still being kept in such establishments. Former Great Ormond Street nurse Jane Nicholson, 65, has devoted her life to helping Romanian kids. In 1991 she
set up charity Fara, which means “without” in Romanian, to help the cause. She says: “In 2007 institutions had to close, but they haven’t. A few of the worst ones were shut but many of the children were just moved around.” Between 600 and 700 Romanian kids found homes in Britain in the Nineties. But in October 2001 a suspension on international adoption was introduced. A Romanian government spokesman said that the focus now is on reuniting children in orphanages with their birth parents or arranging adoption within Romania. International adoption is seen as a last resort. But the two young Romanians featured on these pages have adoption to thank for saving them from the aftermath of Ceausescu’s regime. Here are their inspiring stories.
TRAGIC
. . . a dy
ing child
in an orp
hanage in
1992
INSPIRING . . . Cornel as a baby, inset, and in Oxford, where he is studying, above
CORNEL HRISCA-MUNN, now WHEN Cornel was born in 1991 with no forearms and a severely deformed right leg, his horrified mother had a nervous breakdown. No birth certificate was ever issued and a life that had barely begun was almost written off. A doctor gave Cornel just days to live. The infant was taken to an institution in the Romanian countryside. There, he was left to die in a filthy room crammed full of other unwanted or disabled babies. But Cornel was destined to defy the odds. Doreen Munn, a mum to four daughters, was so moved by the horrific footage of Romanian orphans that she amazed friends by driving an aid lorry to the country. The 69-year-old says: “It was like going back 50 years. Everything there was rusting and broken down and there was no fresh food in the shops. “Stepping into an orphanage for the first time was unbelievable — 150 children were running about with no clothes on, screaming,
and their only toilet was a single hole in the ground.” Doreen’s husband Ken, a surveyor, of Whittington, Worcs, then joined his wife on a series of aid missions. Ken, now 73, says: “In 1992 we were on a trip in northern Romania to see how the aid we had pledged was being used. We asked to see the orphanage and a doctor told us about a little seven-month-old boy, Cornel, who badly needed surgery. “In front of us was this angelic child. We wanted to scoop him up
To contact Fara call 01328 821444, email
reading philosophy & theology there and then but all we could do was go home and pray for him.” Back in the UK, Doreen spoke out about Cornel’s plight and soon received a call from a private hospital pledging free treatment for him. Doreen says: “The rest is history. We gained permission from Cornel’s parents and the Romanian authorities and in 1993 we embarked on the momentous plane journey from Bucharest to the UK.” Doctors decided that amputation was the only option for Cornel’s twisted right leg. The decision meant a prolonged stay in the UK.
Hope
Ken says: “The surgery meant that we would have to adopt Cornel, but by now we had truly bonded with him. Everyone who saw him loved him. He was incredibly perceptive and intuitive, not to mention clever.” Within months, Cornel’s grim future had been transformed into one of hope. He flourished in this loving family environment as a toddler then later at school. Cornel, now 20, says: “My parents here have taken me as their own. “I see them like anyone else would see a mum and dad. I feel I am
their biological child.” Cornel, below with Ken and Doreen, is studying philosophy and theology at Oxford. He says: “It has been a richly rewarding experience so far. The work is extremely challenging.” Apart from his studies, a charity he set up in his early teens is his main focus. The Cornel Romanian Rehabilitation Centre Trust raises funds for a centre for the disabled in his home country. He says: “My motivation for setting up the charity is simple — to give the people in my home country of Romania the same opportunities that I have had. “In the long-term, I wish physical disability not to prevent people in Romania from achieving all the great things they may dream of.” But what of his own future? He says: “I don’t know what it holds. My real dream is to play music as I adore playing drums.” Whatever Cornel decides to do, his adoptive parents could not be more proud. Ken says: “He has been a great joy to us, but we can’t claim any credit for his cleverness. We just gave him a loving environment. “There was something special about him from the start.”
CEZARINA RILEY, now an Army soldier CEZARINA has vivid memories of her years spent in FOUR of Romania’s worst orphanages as she was older than most by the time she was adopted. Now 30, she says: “I remember crying a lot and being hit and beaten and being lined up naked. I remember being in a freezing cold bath with another child and being hit over the head with a showerhead because I had soiled myself.” Cezarina was nine when a couple who ran a post office in Newcastle-underLyme, Staffs, singled her out as the older daughter they wanted to add to their family — they already had two sons of their own. She says: “I still have no idea how I came to be in the first orphanage at the age of three months because I
have never managed to trace my birth parents. I was even fostered for a brief period by a Romanian family. “I remember breaking down when they took me back to the orphanage and pleading with them to come back for me. “When they did it was too late — I had already been adopted and was beginning my new life in England.
Dark
“I’ve never stopped thinking how lucky I was. I was literally plucked out of 100 kids in the orphanage and brought before this couple who said they wanted to adopt me. I’m dark, with olive skin and I remember thinking how white they looked. “My mum handed me a packet of Smarties and it was the best treat I’d ever had in my life. “Then the day came for me to leave the orphanage. I was scared because the other children there had told me that when I got to England my parents would put me to sleep and pluck my brains out. The
flight home was just surreal, particularly as I got to go in the cockpit. I’d never even read books with planes in them.” Once at her adoptive parents home in February 1991, Cezarina began the long road to social adjustment. She astounded her parents by learning to speak English within three months and blending in at school with help from teachers. By 2001, Cezarina left home with an impressive handful of qualifications to join the Army. She is in the Royal Signals and has completed tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. She says: “Biologically, I feel 100 per cent Romanian but Britain is my home. “It has served me well so I’m very happy to serve B r i t ain.”
mail@faracharity.org or visit faracharity.org. To find out more about Cornel’s charity visit thecorneltrust.co.uk