A Leicester based charity which performs heart surgery on children in India has raised £50,000 at a Valentine’s day ball.
Healing Little Hearts, held a valentine’s ball on Saturday evening called ‘Give with Love’ to raise much-needed funds to send specialist healthcare teams to India to perform critical heart surgery on small children.
In India, approximately 300,000 babies start their life with a heart defect and there is often a lack of health-related supplies and expertise in India which leads to little or no medical care for those who urgently need it.
“Healing Little Hearts takes a team of doctors every month to 6 centres in India and so far we’ve operated on 550 children”.
“This event is to raise the profile and to raise money so we can carry on doing this and look after and operate on many many thousands of children,” says Dr. Sanji Nichani, founder of the organisation.
Many of the doctors and nurses are from University Hospitals of Leicester and they are helping to turn this heartbreaking situation upside down by donating their time and expertise to these children.
Doctors, businessmen and nurses were among the guests treated to a three course meal and live entertainment at the Platiumum Suite in Leicester.
Dance duo ‘Signature’, as seen on Britain’s Got Talent and in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, got everyone on their feet as they performed their Michael Jackson tribute and Bhangra routine. “We thought it was wonderful,” said one guest. “We had a really lovely evening, lovely atmosphere, music was brilliant, and a fabulous charity.”
“The evening’s gone superbly, people have had lots of fun, and we’ve managed to raise £50,000. Big thank you to all those people this evening,” gushes Birju Ghelani, Chairman of Healing Little Hearts.
Looking forward, Birju is hoping to expand the organisation beyond India. “We’re looking to go to East Africa, hopefully Tanzania very soon, and we’re in talks with people in Trinidad and Tobago as well,” he reveals.
The event held at the weekend was the biggest ever since the launch of the charity in 2007 by Dr Sanjiv Nichani. Though the charity encounters challenges such as sourcing the medical teams to travel to India and locating centres which are willing to provide free treatment to children with heart conditions, there is no doubt that Healing Little Hearts’ charity ball was a terrific, enjoyable and worthwhile event which pulled on the heartstrings of all present.
For more information about Healing Little Hearts and their event, please visit www.healinglittlehearts.org.uk.
