A cancer treatment budget has been set at £2,000 per month for charity patients. The final two months of 2009 have just been covered by a donation of 12 million (Uganda Shillings) from IAA Healthcare.

IAA Healthcare gives 12m to support Hope Ward Cancer Care

In the photo above Herbert Mukoza, IAA Sales Manager, hands over a cheque to Dr. Helena Nam and team.

We now have our sights on raising £25,000 for 2010 and I’m very pleased to say that we are well on the way, having already received £5,000 from one of our very generous UK supporters, Dr. Richard Bogle, an interventional cardiologist and owner of Cardiac Report Limited.

Richard, thanks once again.

Please considering helping, visit our Just Giving page to make your donation.

We have been able to support all of the following:

• We established a new TB Lab at the hospital in Kampala and helped to support the work of Dr Mark, Dr Grania and Bosco as they led the way in establishing and validating a new TB diagnostic method, MOTS. Target TB has recently provided a grant to help complete the clinical validation and initial phase of testing and treatments.
• In Lira, Northern Uganda, we have been providing primary healthcare to 250 patients each month since the start of 2008. This work has been supported by St. Peters Methodist School in Canterbury, Aspect Capital, Port-P, Wesleyan Assurance and Kuvuka Coffee. We provided funding for staff to receive training by the Ministry of Health and this team has recently started an immunisation programme for those living in and around Lira (immunisation drugs are supplied by the Ministry). In the second half of 2008, in addition to continuing the work above, we hope to start an HIV-AIDS community outreach programme in which the team will provide voluntary counselling, testing and treatments; in this initiative we are working with Hands of Help.
• We have provided various funding for care given to patients at Hope Ward. These have included a number of surgical procedures and cancer treatments. We have further supported Hope Ward by working with a number of organisations, including Cardiac Report Limited, SonoSite, Inverness Medical UK and Morriston Hospital Swansea, to provide much needed medical equipment; the value of which we estimate to be just over £40,000.
• We have just started a new project in Pader, Northern Uganda, where we are working with the Government to renovate, equip and manage the Health Centre. We are hoping that this facility will become the prime referral centre for this region and be a base from which we can perform community based outreach providing much needed healthcare. If we can find sufficient funding this will include perhaps up to 5 mobile clinics that can reach the most rural areas; this initiative is being heavily supported by Dunavant Cotton, HIPS and USAID.

We are absolutely delighted with the level of support received and want to thank you all so much.

There’s lots more to be done, together we can make a difference.

Please consider helping; you can read more about Giving by clicking here…

• We received £356 from individual supporters.
• Dr Richard Bogle and Dr Houman Ashrafian of Cardiac Report Limited gave £3,000 to buy new Ultrasound equipment.
• SonoSite gave £13,300 in the form of discount for the supply of the new MicroMaxx Ultrasound equipment.
• St Peter’s Methodist School in Cantebury gave £255.49 to support treatments given to pupils at the Lira Primary School.

Read more about previous Giving here…

£3,000

towards the purchase of a new Ultrasound for International Hospital Kampala.

The equipment, a MicroMaxx, has been provided to us at a very significant discount (equivalent to a gift of £13,300) by SonoSite through its Sound Caring program.

This is the second time that Richard and his colleagues have helped us; in September last year Cardiac Report Limited bought us a Blood Gas Analyser worth £5,000.

Sponsorship has been pledged by Hwan Sung.

Essential consumables for the Blood Gas Analyser (provided in September by Cardiac Report Limited) have been purchased from Inverness Medical UK, which has kindly provided a very significant discount on its list price. Funding for these supplies has been given by the husband of one of Clement’s UK patients who wrote to us saying:

“With thanks to Dr Clement Agyin who helped save my wife’s life in St. Anthony’s Hospital in Cheam”

Clement’s work colleagues at St Anthony’s have raised funding to help buy the equipment necessary for the monitoring of 3 ITU beds; instead of buying Christmas cards and other presents for colleagues they put the money in a gift box for Clement’s work in Hope Ward, IHK.

Read more here…

The cost of these operations was covered by the £20,000 raised at a charity concert in Kampala at the end of June; over £17,000 of which came from one sponsor, Hwan Sung Medical Charity Services.

Suubi Trust helped provide essential equipment for these operations; a Heat Exchanger, worth about £20,000, generously donated by Morriston Hospital, Swansea and a Blood Gas Analyser, worth just over £5,000, generously bought by Dr Richard Bogle, an interventional cardiologist and owner of Cardiac Report Limited.

This new equipment will be invaluable during the heart surgeries due to be performed next week.

Our thanks to Richard…