Bethesda Children’s Hospital, 2020

To many of us who have lived in Budapest for a number of years, Paul Mizener needs no introduction. Formerly chef at Budapest’s only Scottish bar The Caledonia shortly after he arrived in Hungary, Paul is now well established as a professional chef at Chefparade, Hungary’s largest cooking school (and the culinary experts behind the RBIF’s Summer BBQ!).

“Having lived in Hungary for 10 years, I wanted to give something back to the community, and after speaking with the RBIF and Chefparade, where I had worked for the past 8 years, we came up with the idea of a testimonial dinner”, says Paul, explaining where the idea for our joint project came from.

For health reasons, Paul’s oldest daughter is a regular visitor to the Bethesda Hospital, which became the obvious choice for the fundraiser. After speaking with Dr Rita Jakus, head of the neurology department, and following confirmation from the RBIF’s medical adviser Dr György Fekete, we knew what equipment we needed.

Bethesda Hospital needed help to buy equipment to improve the standard of neurodiagnostic care they could offer, and this fitted in perfectly with Paul’s plan.

“Due to the amazing generosity of my colleagues at Chefparade, who volunteered their time to deliver the evening and the numerous suppliers who donated produce, wine, whisky and beer, the band who performed for free, fantastic speeches, laughter and tears of joy and all the wonderful guests, we managed to achieve our target.” – added Paul.

With normal electroneurography tests we cannot see the nerves, so we can only infer from these results where the nerve damage is. This ultrasound equipment is a huge help in identifying the exact position and size of the damage, after broken bones, post-operative muscular problems, etc. – revealed Dr Rita Jakus.

The sum of money raised by Paul and his Chefparade colleagues on the night of the dinner was matched by the Robert Burns International Foundation, so we were able to make a donation of over HUF 2.6 million to Bethesda Hospital for the equipment, an outstanding achievement!