SKMCH's fund-raising Iftar-cum-dinner held

In a series of Iftar dinners to collect donations for Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMCH), the hospital management on Saturday arranged an Iftar dinner here on Saturday, in which the people generously contributed.
The event, in which Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan, who has founded the hospice in the name of his late mother, was the chief guest. The people belonging to all walks of life attended the Iftar dinner and gave donations to help the needy patients being treated at SKMCH free of cost. The function was moderated by renowned director and actor, Sarmad Khoosat.
A senior official of the SKMCH gave a detailed presentation about the performance of the hospital in 2017 and the challenges facing it. He said the hospital's annual budget for 2018 is Rs 11 billion, half of which is expected to be collected through Zakat and donations of people both inside and outside the country. "SKMCH is providing free of cost cancer treatment facilities to about 75 to 80 percent poor cancer patients and since its creation, the hospital has spent about Rs 35 billion to cure the poor patients," he added.
He claimed that SKMCH Peshawar, which was inaugurated last year, recorded a twenty percent increase in overall activity within a short period of one year. The SKMCH in Lahore, he added, with five linear accelerators, is the largest radiotherapy facility in Pakistan.
The hospital has had Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) capability for many years, and has now also introduced image-guided radiation therapy or IGRT, which is one of the latest methods of radiation therapy delivery, worldwide.
Imran Khan, Chairman Board of Governors of SKMCH, in his address said that the hospital is the only cancer treatment facility in the world which is providing free cancer treatment to such a large number of patients. He also said those trying to politicize the charity institution must learn a lesson from the generous donations of the people who are selflessly contributing as their money is spent on the right cause.
This year record donation was collected in the cities of Lahore, Karachi, Sialkot and Peshawar. A total of 9 Iftar dinners have been held so far in cities including Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Multan, Sargodha and Peshawar.