Saving children from leukaemia
The Rotarians of RC Hyderabad Deccan, RID 3150, donated a cytometer to the Basavatarakam Indo-American Cancer Hospital and Research Institute in the city in the last week of June. The medical equipment will be used to diagnose ‘acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)’, blood cancer in common parlance, in children. The hospital treats about 12,000 cancer patients annually. DG (2018–19) Ramesh Vangala inaugurated the facility at the centre.
The project, costing ₹66 lakh, was executed with support from RC Naperville, RID 6450, USA, and TRF. Uday Pilani, IPP, RC Hyderabad Deccan, said that the cytometer services, which otherwise costs ₹25,000 for a sitting, will be extended free of charge for children hailing from underprivileged families. It will help doctors to determine the exact dosage of medication depending on the extent of the disorder in each child.
The facility will also be used by the MNJ Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre (MNJ) which is the sole referral hospital that treats leukaemia in children across the States of Telengana, Andhra Pradesh and northern Karnataka. The centre provides medical oncology and palliative care services free of cost to all patients below poverty line. More than 10,000 new cancer patients are registered every year and 110,000 patients come for follow-up, totalling to 120,000 patients a year.
“We were on a hat-trick,” said Pilani, adding that this is the club’s third global grant project in the last three years. The first global grant project was a 12-bed dialysis centre costing ₹1.18 crore at the Mahavir Dialysis Centre in Secunderabad and its second project upgraded the Rotary Blood Bank at the Challa Hospital in Hyderabad by providing a state-of-art mobile blood collection van at the cost of ₹68 lakh.
