Rs 18cr raised for another Kannur kid’s treatment

Kozhikode: After raising crores of rupees for the

spinal muscular atrophy

(SMA) treatment of one-and-a-half year old Mohammed from

Mattool

in

Kannur

, Keralites have once again joined hands to raise the required money to import the costly

Zolgensma drug

for yet another kid hailing from

Chapparapadavil

near

Taliparamba

in Kannur.

The committee formed to raise money for the treatment of Mohammed Qasim said that they received Rs 17.3 crore in the bank accounts till Sunday afternoon, including the Rs 8.5 crore they will get from the excess amount collected for the treatment of the Mattool child.

“The fund collection target of Rs 18 crore will be crossed if the amounts raised locally are deposited in the account,” said the committee’s chairperson Sunija Balakrishnan. The committee had asked people not to send money to the bank account which they will be closing on Monday following the winding up of the fund collection drive.

She said that the committee had started the fund collection drive on July 17. Though the donations were slow at the beginning, after the Mattool Mohammed treatment committee announced their Rs 8.5 crore support, flow of donations picked up pace. Qasim will turn two on September 26.

The earlier crowdfunding drive for SMA treatment of Mattool kid Mohammed had been a huge success with donations of Rs 46.7 crore flowing into the bank accounts instead of the Rs 18 crore they had hoped to collect.

The committee had decided to hand over the excess fund to the treatment of other SMA-affected kids, including Rs 8.5 crore for treatment of Qasim. Mohammed was administered the imported gene therapy drug at Aster MIMS hospital on Tuesday.


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