More than one million donated to the TYKS Foundation

The TYKS Foundation is a non-profit foundation established by the Hospital District of Southwest Finland. It supports, promotes, and maintains research in clinical medicine and other university-level health sciences in Turku University Hospital and its area of influence. 

– Jarmo Karppi's bequest significantly increases the foundation's capital and contributes to supporting high-quality scientific research. With the support of work and travel grant funding distributed by the Foundation, our researchers can develop more detailed research methods, more effective treatments and safer medicines, says Doctor of Medical Sciences Minna Lukkarinen, Executive Director of the Foundation. The TYKS Foundation will honour Karppi's memory by establishing a Jarmo Karppi researcher award, which will be awarded for the first time in spring 2024. 

Individual donors make the operation of the Foundation possible. Over the years, many people and organisations from Southwest Finland have supported the TYKS Foundation. Donations have included Christmas greetings and anniversary gifts, one-off donations and wills. The TYKS Foundation distributed some 150,000 euros in grants in 2023. Research and travel grants for 2024 can be applied for in October 2023. 

– We are delighted that we can support high-quality scientific research at Turku University Hospital and in the Southwest Finland wellbeing services county with an even higher grant amount for 2024. Funding for research is particularly important also in the new wellbeing services county. Tyks is a university hospital, and our research offers the best way to improve future care, summarises Docent Mikko Pietilä, Chair of the Board of the TYKS Foundation, Director of Hospital District at TYKS Hospital Services. 

Jarmo Karppi: A bachelor who was comfortable in his own company

Jarmo Antero Karppi (1953 – 2022) was born in Pöytyä and attended the Puolalan yhteislyseo school in Turku. He graduated as a technician from the specialist option of measurement and adjustment technology in the electrical department of Turun teknillinen koulu. He was a Finnish navy non-commissioned officer in the gun section. 

Karppi was a craftsman and technically talented. In the 1970s, he worked as a designer and programmer of electronics and test equipment in several companies. In the 1980s, he started as a shareholder and product development manager in a company manufacturing industrial electronics, where he worked until his retirement in 2016. 

Karppi lived with his parents until they died. He did not get married or have any children. His significant assets were collected through investments and pension savings. He lived sparingly and had no specific hobbies outside his home. After the working day, he spent his time mainly watching television on his own, and he also liked listening to progressive music. Those who knew him in business life describe him as a nice but quiet man who liked his own company and whom no one really knew very well. Of his relatives, he mostly stayed in contact with his brother's son, who says that he spent time with his uncle by watching movies and playing computer games. They went to Lapland and Jyväskylä to watch rally. 

In the early 2000s, Karppi was diagnosed with diabetes requiring urgent treatment during a health examination at the workplace. In his final years, he also had cancer. He chose the TYKS Foundation as the donation target for his gratitude for the good treatment he received at Tyks. In his will in 2019, he wanted to direct his funds to cancer research through the TYKS Foundation. Jarmo Karppi died in a home for the elderly in Kaarina in autumn 2022.