Acceptance Speech of Prof. George Vithoulkas at his Nomination as Honorary Professor

Madame Speaker, Your Excellencies ladies and gentlemen, friends. I would like to give you now some personal background. I was born in Athens in 1932. During the second world war I lost eight members of my family, including both my parents. I had to work hard from the age of 11, firstly in order to survive and then in order to study. Since that time I seem to have learned to think for myself and to solve problems without asking for help from others. In any case, during those difficult war years, nobody could afford to offer help. Another event in my life that marked my later development was that as a result of malnutrition suffered in the terrible famine in wartime Athens, I developed a serious spinal condition at the age of sixteen. I lived in pain for 12 years, refusing to take the orthodox treatment that was proposed in 1948, as the doctors told me that there was a strong possibility of paralysis if surgery was performed. I lived in that condition, still working hard to support m