On Saturday, July 25, I will be doing a sponsored walk to raise money for Calcutta Rescue’s extraordinary efforts to help the poorest people in Kolkata and West Bengal during the COVID-19 crisis.

I am a trustee of the charity’s UK support group and the inspiration for the Kolkata COVID Challenge came to me during a Zoom conference with its CEO in early June. He explained the huge challenges the charity faces as it struggles to operate its clinics in a safe way over the coming months and support thousands of people left destitute by the lockdown.

I work for Barclays, and as part of their COVID-19 Community Aid Package have agreed in principle to match-fund all the money to be raised which means your donations will be DOUBLED!

The challenges Calcutta Rescue face right now include providing effective PPE for its medical teams, patients, teachers and schoolchildren, funding food parcels for hundreds of families and buying life-saving drugs whose costs have rocketed since the crisis began.

Doctors need tablets so they can conduct consultations remotely, students need smartphones so they can stay engaged in education while their schools remain closed. The charity’s schools need to be adapted so they can operate safely when the government allows them to reopen.

I was particularly moved by the story of Raj Biswas, 12, who started coughing up blood during the lockdown. He was turned away again and again by government clinics, but not by Calcutta Rescue which arranged for blood tests and an X-Ray and has started him on TB drugs.

The charity’s commitment to helping the poorest of the poor really is second to none. Since the crisis began it has worked in the most difficult conditions, providing thousands of food parcels to impoverished families and carrying out mercy missions far into the countryside to bring medicine to desperate patients. 

Calcutta Rescue was founded by Dr Jack Preger - the grandfather of global street medicine, and July 25 is his 90th birthday - which is why I chose that day for the Kolkata COVID Challenge.

At mid-day I will symbolically set off from the Meridian Line at Greenwich in London to walk 10 kms for the charity. The line marks 0 degree longitude - the point from which all places on the planet lie either East or West.

And I hope that people all round the world will be inspired to walk with me on that day. So please give whatever you can to help Calcutta
Rescue help thousands of poor people at their hour of greatest need.

Thank you so much for your support!

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