Minister’s gesture offends desperate cancer patient

EDİRNE – Doğan News Agency

A cancer patient that requested help from Minister Bayraktar expresses her fury that he only gave her money rather than address her larger issues. DHA photo

A cancer patient waiting for Turkish Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar today in front of the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne to reach out to him, burst into tears as she was offended by his clumsy gesture to her appeal. 

Bayraktar was on his way to pray at the historical mosque when a young woman with her hair cut very short – like many patients who have received chemotherapy – approached him. She took his hand, desperately requesting help with the supply of her medicine from abroad. A little bit confused, Bayraktar put some money in her pocket. “Take this money. What else can I do? Buy it yourself. Don’t drop the money from your pocket,” he told her.

His gesture did nothing but upset the cancer patient. When the minister entered the mosque, the woman waited for him outside. As Bayraktar walked out of Selimiye, his bodyguards seized her by her arms to discourage her. She still managed to approach him again and handed him back the money. “I was misunderstood. I am not a beggar. I have been disappointed about human kindness again. I can see that you never experienced what it feels like to be helpless,” she said, bursting into tears. 

“Let me help you, my daughter, what do you want?” the minister asked, but the woman ran away. 

Then Bayraktar told the reporter that he did not mean to offend the woman, adding that Edirne Gov. Hasan Duruer would personally attend to the supply of her medicine.