2024-07-30 12:55:42
Work in a legendary basketball team
K. Čereška told the program “Health Time” of “Žinių radio” that she chose between two majors at school – physics and medicine. The latter path won by chance, as the 17-year-old, unable to make up his mind, tossed a coin.
In the Soviet era, the Lithuanian, who graduated from Tartu University with pharmacology and sports medicine studies, returned to his homeland and was assigned to work in sports medicine – for a year he was the doctor of the Kaunas “Banga” women’s basketball team.
Back then, K. Čereška used pharmacological knowledge, but he does not think that chemical preparations have a place in sports.
“I think that sport must be real, it cannot be stimulated by chemical means. What is happening now? On the one hand, they are looking for means to activate the body, on the other hand, they are looking for ways to detect those means in the human body in a laboratory.
I was never in favor of it, although people are more sensible now. At that time, especially in this region, there was not much control,” said K. Čereška.
When asked about the use of doping agents, he admitted that different standards apply in the Soviet Union.
“It was 1985. There were also doping and anti-doping controls. Only in the region where we lived, we remember very well, there were different rules than in the normal western world.
But I was lucky. The coach I was working with had the same mindset as me. He needed results, but with the right means, I didn’t have to suffer either,” assured K. Čereška.
Medicines will not cure everything
The interviewee said that he worked at the hospital only during his studies – he was on duty in the intensive care unit at night.
K. Čereška eventually landed at the Department of Pharmacology of the Kaunas Medical Institute, where he spent 5 years.
The host of the show, Rima Balanaškienė, also a doctor, recalled that at the end of the last century, there were rumors that doctors and therapists would become unnecessary, because all diseases would be cured by pharmaceutical means.
“I didn’t have the feeling then that medicine would do everything,” K. Čereška testified. – And now I think that first of all, a person must do everything he can without medication.
Lifestyle, nutrition, movement are very important. I remember the words of a professor at the University of Tartu that sport does not add years to life, but it adds life to years. A very deep thought.”
Spirit missing from the lab
Back then, LSD, morphine, and other psychotropic substances could be found in K. Čereška’s work cabinet, but there was no serious protection.
Only radioactive materials were stored in safes that required a code to open.
However, the overall level of control was low, unbecoming of a scientific laboratory.
“I remembered one funny story. Medical spirit was needed for washing materials. There was a 20-liter glass container for it, which never ran out.
Once we noticed that the materials were not diluting and I saw that there were less than 40 degrees left.
It turns out that our guard used to drain the spirit and add water. We said: “Listen, if it spills, at least don’t pour water, because now you’ve ruined everything,” said K. Čereška with a smile.
A new job with a meaningful mission
However, K. Čereška deviated from the path of scientific career. They say that during the creation of the independent state of Lithuania, there was a lack of funding for research. Therefore, the man chose to work in a pharmaceutical company.
“This is not exactly how I imagined how things turned out later in life, I dreamed differently. I thought that while working for the company, I would also be able to do science, because the company that develops the drugs has laboratories.
Then I realized how big the company is and how far those things are from each other. The field of science had to be forgotten,” said the man who turned to marketing and management.
K. Čereška has been diving in the pharmaceutical business for almost 3 decades, he was the head of the wholesale pharmaceutical company “GlaxoSmithKline Lietuva” until its closure in 2021.
in 2023 in September, it was announced that K. Čereška won the selection of the new manager of “Sodra”.
He said that he had no burning desire to return to the pharmaceutical sector, and after seeing the “Sodra” job advertisement, the idea arose to transfer his experience to a state institution, although he doubted his success in the competition.
“I was sincerely convinced that such a place has its own people, and the competition is more pro forma. Now I see that it was a misconception,” said K. Čereška.
The man said that the mission of “Sodra” is particularly meaningful – a person’s social security throughout his life.
“An unborn person is already in the arms of Sodra and will be so until the last day,” explained K. Čereška.
He admitted that the pension paid by “Sodra” alone is not enough in old age, so it would be worthwhile to take care of alternative sources of income – savings in pension funds.
2024-07-30 12:55:42