Bristol-Myers Squibb provides grants to aid European cancer care

Bristol-Myers Squibb has announced plans to provide a series of grants to aid cancer awareness, prevention and care initiatives in central and eastern Europe.

The company's charitable arm the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is to offer funding totalling more than $900,000 (573,200 pounds) to support six projects taking place in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Russia.

Recipients include the Hungarian Hospice Foundation, which is aiming to create better cancer screening programmes by engaging nursing staff, as well as the Romanian Cancer Society, Project Hope Poland and World Services of La Crosse.

This forms part of the company's Bridging Cancer Care scheme and will help to improve education and training for nurses and patients, thus helping to reduce the burden caused by cancer in these areas.

John Damonti, president of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, said: "Nurses are an integral part of the healthcare system and have the potential to significantly influence patient outcomes."

This comes after the foundation offered support to a new World Health Organization project to combat tuberculosis earlier this month.