AROUND 30 children with cancer were due to arrive today (Friday) in Spain along with their families on a flight charted from Ukraine, Spanish president Pedro Sánchez announced.
He revealed late on Thursday that a military aircraft would be leaving the base in Zaragoza (Aragón), and returning with the Ukrainian children and their families at around 17.00 or 18.00.
The roundabout at the entrance to Torrejón de Ardoz airbase, with the ‘retired’ McDonnell RF-4C Phantom II reused as decoration. About 30 Ukrainian children with cancer were due to land here this evening with their families (Photo: Alan Wilson/Wikimedia Commons)
Giving details of the evacuation plan at the refugee welcome and resettlement centre in the Madrid-region commuter town of Pozuelo de Alarcón, Sánchez said the air force had been working closely with the State Haematology and Oncology Society to ensure that each and every one of the children would be given full specialist care on arrival, and their health needs met during the journey.
Defence minister Margarita Robles was due to meet the returning plane, an A-400M, at the air force base in Torrejón de Ardoz (Greater Madrid region) and be on hand to help the young patients and their families when they landed.
Reporters and the general public were not to be allowed entry to the air base at the time, in order to protect the children's privacy.
They are expected to be seen almost immediately by paediatric cancer specialists to ensure their treatment is uninterrupted, and those who in the most serious condition and were hospitalised prior to leaving Ukraine will be admitted straight away into the correct facilities.
A reception committee from the Pozuelo refugee centre was due to be present when the aircraft landed to ensure all arrivals' initial needs were taken care of.
