Metallica donate $279K to fund pediatric hospital in Romania

Metallica just donated 250,000 euros, or $279,000, to a Romanian association that plans to build the country’s first pediatric oncology hospital. 

The association is called Daruieste Viata, which means Give Life. The band made the donation right before their sold-out concert in Bucharest on Wednesday. 

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The donation was made through Metallica’s non-profit called All Within My Hands, which helps make “sustainable communities by supporting workforce education, the fight against hunger and other critical local services.” 

A press release about the donation stated that the band was inspired by Mastercard donating €1,000,000 toward the Daruieste Viata project. 

The hospital will be the first pediatric oncology and radiotherapy location in the country and will have top-notch medical equipment and technology. 

The Daruieste Viata project posted on its Facebook page about how thankful they were for the money. 

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More Metallica news

One Metallica fan used one of the band’s songs to combat a wild animal and it turns out, it actually worked. 

Now, the band have contacted her in honor of her viral story. 

To backtrack, Canadian woman Dee Gallant discussed an encounter she had with a cougar. It was pretty scary, but she used heavy metal to save herself. 

Gallant was on a walk in a town in British Columbia with her dog when she encountered a wild cougar. 

“I looked over to the right and there it was,” she told Kelowna Now. “I couldn’t make it out at first and thought, ‘Oh that is a strange color, that’s not a tree.’” 

She said the animal started to approach her when she took out her phone to record the moment. 

“It was crouched down, doing that kind of prowl, predator walk they do – that was when I waved my arms and yelled, ‘Hey, you stop!’ and it did,” she said. 

You can see her video below. 

Her words of encouragement to the animal weren’t enough. So, she did what she had to do — started blasting “Don’t Tread on Me” by Metallica. 

“I thought it was the noisiest thing on my phone that would probably scare it,” she continued. “That was also the message I wanted to convey to the cougar.” 

It turns out it worked as the cougar eventually left her alone and retreated into the woods. 

She said she would “love to contact (Metallica) someday and tell James Hetfield that he saved my life.” 

Now, Hetfield reached out to the woman and gave her a phone call. 

“I was a little bit lost for words,” Gallant told CTV News about the call. “It’s surreal how quickly it happened and how far it’s gone. The fact that he’s so down to earth and such a great person, I’m very pleased to find that out first-hand.” 

“If you had told the 18-year-old me that this would happen, I never would’ve believed it,” she added. “I would’ve just fallen out of my skin with excitement.”

After the phone call, Hatfield sent a selfie with the message: “Thought you might like some confirmation that it was me.”

You can listen to “Don’t Tread on Me” below and save it in case you ever need to fight off a wild cougar. 

What do you think of the generous donation? Sound off in the comments down below!

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