Accra Academy ‘88 year group donates GH¢7,100 • To save life of student suffering from kidney failure
The Class of 1988 of the Accra Academy Senior High School (Bleoo 88) has presented a cheque for GH¢7,100 towards a kidney transplant surgery of a 17-year-old student of the school, Richard Kusi Yeboah.
Advertisement
A representative of the group, Mr Albert Wilson, presented the cheque to Richard’s mother, Ms Janet Donkor.
He said the money was to facilitate the commencement of the kidney transplant for Richard, who was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure three years ago when both of his kidneys got damaged.
The cost for the transplant is GH¢60,000.00 and should be acquired by the end of June 2014, to enable Richard to be attended to by a medical team which would be in the country from the United Kingdom to perform the surgery.
Richard has been undergoing haemodialysis treatment at the Renal Dialysis Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for the past three years to prepare him for the kidney transplant.
He needs the dialysis three times per week at a cost of a GH¢570.00 per week.
Making the presentation, Mr Wilson said the group solicited funds from various old students, institutions, and individuals to help Richard complete his surgery.
Another old student of the school, Mr Abel Cofie, who accompanied the 1988 year group to make the donation, expressed appreciation to the group for responding promptly to Richards’s appeal for assistance.
He said "the story of Richard came to my attention when Douglas Dodoo, an old boy of Accra Academy (Bleoo 80) who is soliciting support in the UK for Richard, visited Graphic to make an appeal. l was moved by this kind gesture and decided to help coordinate the raising of funds locally, especially from old boys of Accra Academy, public and private institutions and the public.
Mr Cofie, who is now the coordinator of the local fundraising team, said the appeal received prompt response from members of the 1988 year group (Bleoo 88) who raised GH¢7,100.00 in less than a week.
He said Richard’s surgery was due this month and ‘it is my fervent prayer that this wonderful gesture by "Bleoo 88" would be emulated by other year groups not only of Accra Academy, but also alumni of other schools, corporate institutions and the general public’.
He further expressed his gratitude to institutions and other old boys of Accra Academy, notably Percy Boamah, for their support.
The patient’s mother, Ms Janet Donkor, who received the money, commended the group for the kind gesture.
She was also grateful to the National Lotteries Authority, which first donated GH¢20,000.00, which has help pay for some of the cost of Richard’s dialysis and other medical expenses.
Ms Donkor also thanked her family members and friends who have also been of help to raise the weekly amount for the dialysis.