KARACHI: The Shaukat Khanum Hospital is not just a facility, it’s a HOPE. It is a dream which cancer patients see to live. It is the door to recovery for those afflicted by this once fatal ailment.
Around 75 percent of the patients treated in the SKMT Lahore do not have to pay a single penny as the facility is run on an immaculate charity programme.
The second facility is up and working in Peshawar and for both the facilities the nation owe gratitude to former Pakistan World Cup winning captain and chairman SKMT Imran Khan, who has an aim to give the best treatment of such patients in the country.
The third facility in Karachi was launched in December last year for which the SKMT has found another wise and noble way to raise funds: through collection centers. The theme is: conduct tests in SKMT labs and build Shaukat Khanum hospital in Karachi. All the income through the tests conducted at these centers will be pumped in the enormous funds needed to make the SKMT Karachi up and running.
No less than 25 SKMT collection centers were inaugurated in the metropolitan city on Tuesday, July 25, 2017. The first center was inaugurated near the Bilawal Chowrangi.
Like all the SKMT functions, and it’s a trend set by Imran, a cancer patient Waleed Ahmed inaugurated the collection centre. Waleed, 10, suffered from chest cancer a few years back and was ably treated at SKMT hospital in Lahore. He also launched the Karachi chapter of the hospital last year, so was invited to share his experience here as well.
“I owe my life to SKMT,” said Waleed, who was accompanied by an equally happy father. “I love Imran Khan because he is the one who is building hospitals for patients like me.”
The affable Dr Ahsan, now looking after the marketing of the SKMT, gave a brief on the purpose of the collection centers besides giving the overall structure of the Trust and hospital. Dr. Faisal Sultan, Chief Executive Officer, briefed about the budget and overall expenses of the Trust and emphasized the need for using the collection points in order to build the Karachi chapter of the hospital.
