I am raising money for a charity / cause which is very close to my heart and have been involved with for well over two decades back in Pakistan – yes doing fund raising for it since I was a kid.

Imran Khan Cancer Appeal / Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre (UK Charity Registration: 1000580) provides free and subsidised healthcare and cancer treatment to 70% of its patients. It is a colossal challenge to sustain a general hospital, let alone a state of the art specialist cancer hospital, in a country where there is no concept of universal healthcare / right to free healthcare and political corruption is endemic.  Hospital’s construction was financed by private contributions, institutional donations and charitable fundraising events that were held all over the world. It started its operations in 1994 in Lahore, Pakistan and continues to provide quality cancer treatment for free financed through charitable donations. Another state of the art cancer hospital is under construction in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Peshawar Project:

After the Punjab, patients from the Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa province form the largest group of patients seen at the hospital. Since 1994, nearly 40,000 patients from the NWFP / KPK having been registered at SKMCH&RC, Lahore. In an effort to bring care closer to the patient, it was decided to open a second Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, in Peshawar. The construction of a comprehensive cancer diagnosis and treatment facility in Peshawar will not only provide  state-of-the-art cancer treatment services to the people of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, irrespective of their ability to pay, but will also help raise healthcare standards and provide training and employment opportunities in the wider region.

Recognising the credibility of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, the provincial government awarded 50 kanals of land in Peshawar for the construction of the hospital. The ground-breaking ceremony of the Hospital was performed at the site (Plot number 5 – B, Sector A 2, Office Enclave Phase – V, Hayatabad, Peshawar) on March 9, 2011, by Muhammad Salman, SKMCH&RC’s first bone marrow transplant patient. The Chief Minister also announced a grant of Rs. 50 million on behalf of the Government of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa.

Construction work is going on in full swing at the site and plans are underway to complete the first phase, comprising outpatient clinics, chemotherapy facilities and an inpatient unit, by December 2015. The estimated cost of the first phase is over GBP 26.5 million (Rs 4 billion). In the second and third phases, we expect to add radiation and surgical services, increase the total number of inpatient beds, and add a full intensive care unit. In order to raise the funds required to accomplish a project of this magnitude, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust relies heavily on your donations. This was done in the past by making the first Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Lahore and together we can do this again by transforming the second Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Peshawar from a dream into reality.

If we all do a little, we can all do a lot. ___________________________________________________________________________ Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

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