The inauguration of the monument dedicated to Christodoula was held today in an emotional atmosphere and in the presence of the president of the House of Representatives, Annita Dimitriou, during the 48th Pan-Cypriot March of Christodoula. For the first time, thanks to the sculptor Filippos Giapani as well as the Municipality of Sotiras, the symbol of the annual march of the Anti-Cancer Association reveals the face of the woman Christodoula who inspired the march.
The Municipality of Sotiras as a minimal sign of debt to Christodoula but also the struggle of every cancer patient, had already in 2018 decided to build a new monument at the point where the heroic figure of Christodoula left her last breath.
The project is worth €250.000 euros and was built exclusively at the expense of the Municipality of Sotiras. It includes the erection of the statue and the total renovation of the surrounding area, and highlights the character of the monument, since it is now placed in a more central spot and emphasizes the movement of the statue. The surrounding space with the creation of amphitheater-type steps can be used by the public as a place of rest and relaxation, but also as a place for the organization of the established annual Christodoula Procession.
As for the statue itself, its construction was undertaken by the well-known Cypriot sculptor and her neighbor in Varosi, Filippos Giapanis, who after personal research, incorporated into the work small details from hitherto unknown aspects of Christodoula's character.
In the monument, Christodoula is depicted wearing closed shoes despite the fact that it was summer, since, as people close to her explained, she herself never wore sandals or slippers as she considered it derogatory. The monument depicts Christodoula walking with a suitcase, clumsily made, since half the clothes will be hanging out of it. Silly, as she hastily left home to arrive, impoverished and exhausted from cancer under the orange tree, where she breathed her last.
The Municipality of Sotiras hopes that the Monument will be a point of reference for the region and will give due honor to the woman-symbol Christodoula, but also to the real fighters of life, men and women, who were beaten by the terminal disease and fight every day.
Who was Christodoula?
Christodoula was born in Agios Memnona Famagusta and was one of the 5 children of the Ttofini family, which came from Ayia Napa. Her other siblings were Katerina, Elego, Giorkis and Giannis. Katerina, the older sister, was like a mother to Christodoula since their mother died young and left them alone. Christodoula then married Antonis Zembasii from Paralimni, with whom they had three sons and a daughter. They lived in Lower Varosi until the invasion (1974).
In 1972, when he was about 70 years old, he was diagnosed with cancer and had to have a mastectomy. Unfortunately, the cancer metastasized to various parts of her body, something that afflicted her unimaginably.
When the invasion took place in August 1974, pursued by Attila, he took the road from Kato Varosi with the intention of going through Agios Memnon to Kokkinochoria and the British Bases which provided security under the circumstances. After a journey of about 15-20 kilometers, she reached an orange grove in Sotira and, exhausted as she was, she went under an orange tree to rest. There she breathed her last.
The death of an elderly woman suffering from cancer under an orange tree went unnoticed by the local community of Sotiras, whose members had to think about the young people who were missing on the battlefields or were missing, but also the thousands of refugees who had flooded the area during that time period. Some residents, however, had been informed of the event and when things calmed down in the village, they began to tell the story. On the site of the former orange grove that Christodoula cleared in 1974, a modest monument was erected, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1989 by the then Minister of Labor and Social Insurance, Takis Christofidis.
The proposal to establish the Christodoula march, on an annual basis, was adopted by the Anti-Cancer Association in 1976 and in April of the same year the first March took place. It was a proposal by Dr. Dimitris Souliotis to financially support the Center. The same doctor was the one who suggested that the Process should be named after one of his patients, Christodoula. The march has been established by the Cyprus Anti-Cancer Association, as an annual event of social solidarity and moral support for cancer patients and their families and is the association's main source of income. Every year the institution of the March pays the required respect, interest and love to all those suffering from cancer and in the face of Christodoula it sees the symbol of the fight for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.