Organisers of For the Love of Golf Initiative, a yearly event held to support paediatric cancer patients, have promised to identify indigent children living with the dreaded disease and assist them through their treatment.
Speaking during the closing ceremony of season four of the Love of Golf Charity tournament, which ended at the weekend at Ikeja Golf Club, coordinator of the project, Ejiro Ogomigo, said that before now, the proceeds made from golfers, who registered to play at the tournament and funds raised from corporate sponsors, were used to procure cancer equipment for selected University Teaching Hospitals like LUTH, LASU and UCH. He said that they would move away from that strategy and adopt what he called a direct assistance of indigent paediatric cancer patients.
“When we donated equipment to teaching hospitals, it was impossible to assess our impact when people demanded for it. But with the direct assistance, we can beat our chest and say that we have saved so and so number of lives.
“So, what it means is that we will start the direct assistance of indigent paediatric cancer patients and follow through until they are declared cancer free.” He also thanked individual and corporate donors for helping to make this year’s event a huge success.
The founder of For the Love of Golf tournament, Dr Adesola Falaiye, expressed her delight at the successful completion of Season Four of the charity event and promised everyone that contributed money that every penny they got would be accounted for.
“I really appreciate the individuals and corporate bodies that supported us to make this dream a reality. On behalf of the steering committee, I promise all our sponsors that we won’t betray their trust”.
We will account for every penny that they have put into this project,” she stated.
Earlier, the captain of the Ikeja Golf Club, Olusina Akinyemi, commended the passion that Dr. Falaiye has showed in putting smiles on the faces of paediatric cancer patients in the country and promised that the club would continue to support her and her crew to keep the tournament active for many years.
Awards were later given to winners in various categories like the male, female and corporate events. The highpoint of the programme was the handing over of ECG machines and cardiac monitors to the management of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan who were beneficiary of the equipment procured for this year’s edition.
