Alhaji Sheriff (2nd left) presenting the cheque to Dr Sereboe (2nd right) with patient in the middle
Marhaba Multimedia Limited, an Accra based Hausa radio station, Marhaba FM, yesterday, presented a cheque for US$6500 to the National Cardiothoracic Centre for the surgical procedure of a 26-year-old hole-in-heart patient, Hawa Bukari.
As part of its corporate social responsibility, the media house initiated an appeal for funds programme since August 2019, thereby raising an amount of US$3300. Former President, John Dramani Mahama, topped up the remaining US$3200. All is now set for the condition medically known as Perimembraneous Ventricular Septal Defect (PMVSD) to be corrected.
The Chief Executive Officer of Marhaba FM, Alhaji Abdullahi Baba Sheriff, accompanied by a representative of the former President, Mustapha Abubakar, made the donation to the Director of the Centre, Dr Lawrence Serebo. The additional amount of GH?308 plus US$100 cash, as surplus of donations received was given to the patient who was a tertiary institution student, for her upkeep.
The CEO of Marhaba FM said the company had raised an amount of US$96,000 since 2012 in aid of 10 patients at the National Cardiothoracic Centre.
He expressed his appreciation to listeners of the radio station for the heart-touching and overwhelming support.
“I remember an old woman from Nima who came to our place and crawled upstairs to give five Ghana Cedis as her donation,” he said.
Dr Sereboe said ideally every child with hole-in-heart should have corrective surgery before starting school and urged parents not to shy away from pre-school medical examination as that was the best way to detect such medical conditions which were usually asymptomatic.
“Children with such conditions may live like normal people. And such people we say are quiet people because they don’t exert themselves and it is because when they do, they start having symptoms,” he said.
The patient who is a level 400 student disclosed in an interview that she was diagnosed with the condition three years ago through a mandatory medical examination and was then referred to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for further examination and treatment.
She expressed gratitude to the media, organization and the entire public for the love and support shown her.
By Issah Mohammed