27th TANKER Annual Charity and Awards Nite 2020
TANKER Foundation celebrated its 27th Annual Charity and Awards Nite on Saturday, 25th January 2020 at 5.45 pm at Hotel Savera, RK Salai, Chennai.
The Mrs. Malathi Venkatesan TANKER Foundation Memorial Lecture was delivered by Mrs. Vasundhara Raghavan, The Founder of the Kidney Warriors Foundation and a champion who works tirelessly to improve the lives of Kidney patients.She spoke on "The Kidney Warriors- A New Outlook to the Kidney Disease Challenge”.Her experience in donating her kidney to her son and the lack of proper information about the disease,diet,transplants and much more made her start the Kidney Warriors Foundation which is mainly a Facebook and WhatsApp group where thousands of people share their experiences and learn from each other.She also highlighted that there was a great lack of nephrologists in India and that the Government should work on this.
This was followed by the Ramp Walk by Dialysis Patients for Ms. TANKER and Mr. TANKER, conducted by Ms. Revathy, Trustee, TANKER Foundation.16 TANKER patients on dialysis walked the ramp with clothes designed by Samastha and Fab India.It was a great experience for them and they were very happy that they had been part of the TANKER event.Ms.Uma Mageshwari was crowned MS.TANKER and Mr.Regi, Mr.Lal Bahadur and Mr.Mahendran were crowned MR.TANKER.
Dr.Georgi welcomed the gathering and said that the need for dialysis was on the increase and that more awareness had to be created about this dreaded disease.Mrs.Latha Kumaraswami,Managing Trustee ,TANKER Foundation talked about TANKER's small beginnings in 1993 and that with help from the Chief Ministers Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS), Greater Chennai Corporation,family,friends,Rotary,Lions,Round Table,Free Masons,Ladies Circle,Inner Wheel,Corporates and other valuable donors,TANKER runs 8 dialysis Units in Chennai,Madurai,Vellore and Coimbatore and do 4550 dialysis a month serving 559 patients.So far TANKER has done 318,593 free and subsidized dialysis for 1562 patients and given financial support of Rs. 313 Lakhs to 3282 patients. TANKER has reached out to 1.87 lakh people with 1259 Awareness Programmes and also screened 34,803 individuals for early detection of kidney disease through 403 screening camps.The Awards nite was a function to recognise research in Nephrology and Service to the public.
The Chief Guest Mr. M. M. Murugappan, Chairman, Murugappa Group said that he admired and appreciated the dedicated work that TANKER does and also wanted more Corporates to come forward with CSR programmes to help the cause.He presented the following awards.
The K. V. George Kottukulam Memorial TANKER & Kerala Kidney Research Foundation Young Investigator Award for outstanding research done in the field of Nephrology in India was awarded to Dr. R. M. Anjana of Mohan Diabetes Research Foundation for her research into “Unsupervised machine learning model to identify the type 2 diabetes subgroups and their risk of kidney disease”. The award carried a prize of Rs. 2,00,000/- a citation and a gold medallion.
The Renny Abraham TANKER Foundation Love for Service Award for a medical doctor who has gone beyond the call of duty in serving the underprivileged was awarded to Dr. Prahalathan KK, Co-Founder, Bhumi for his selfless service in serving the needy and steering a huge volunteer force ,especially during the Chennai floods in 2015. The award carried a prize of Rs. 1,00,000/-, a citation and a gold medallion.
The La Renon TANKER Foundation For the Sake of Honour Award given to an individual who has done exemplary work in his or her field was awarded to Mrs. Vasundhara The Founder of the Kidney Warriors Foundation and a champion who works tirelessly to improve the lives of Kidney patients. The award carried a prize of Rs. 1,00,000/-, a citation and a gold medallion.
The La Renon TANKER Foundation Lifetime Achievement Awards given to two individuals who have done exemplary work in the field of Nephrology were awarded to Dr. M. A. Muthusethupathi ,the father of Nephrology in Tamilnadu and Dr. Nandita Choudhury, the first Nephrologist in the North East (Guwahati). The awards carried a prize of Rs. 1,00,000/-, a citation and a gold medallion each.
The K. Venkatanarayana TANKER Foundation Awareness Award given to an individual for creating awareness of any disease, mental, physical and social was awarded Dr. C. V. Krishnaswami who has been creating awareness of Diabetes through his books, talks and free clinics. The award carried a prize of Rs. 1,00,000/-, a citation and a gold medallion.
The Ashok Sankaralingam TANKER Foundation Patient Endowment - One year dialysis support was given for 3 under privileged deserving patients with kidney failure Rs. 1,00,000/-.
This was followed by TANKER Staff Recognition, Prizes and Dinner. Grateful thanks were conveyed to TANKER's We to well wishers, sponsors, the Media and donors especially Mrs. Nina Reddy for sponsoring the dinner at Savera Hotel.