Lakshan is off to India – thanks to the overwhelming response
View(s):Desperation has given way to overwhelming relief for P.K. Kulatunga and his family from Pallebage off Deraniyagala.
Lakshan in hospital. Pic by Anuradha Bandara
This is the minor employee of the medicinal stores of the National Hospital in Colombo who pleaded for funds from generous people to take his 14-year-old son, Lakshan Udara, for a bone marrow transplant to Chennai’s Apollo Hospital in India.
The boy is suffering from Fanconi anaemia, a rare inherited blood disorder, for which the only answer is a bone marrow transplant. The family has been lucky as their eldest son, Lahiru Udara’s bone marrow has been found to match that of Lakshan’s.
This father’s plea for Rs. 5 million did pull the heart-strings of people and within about five days Rs. 800,000, big and small contributions, flowed into his bank account. There was, however, a long way to go.
As soon as Lakshan’s pathetic situation was highlighted in the PLUS of the Sunday Times of June 7, headlined, ‘Unlike other boys he can’t run around’, the family had some unexpected visitors in their remote and humble home in Pallebage. They were from a well-known private company and though father and ill son were in hospital in Colombo, the visitors had a chat with the mother and other two boys.
This visit followed a huge donation of Rs. 5 million being credited to Kulatunga’s account. Smaller contributions also continued to come in, making up close to Rs. 5.9 million.
Now, there is hectic activity, as preparations are underway to get the passports ready, travel plans including the securing of visas finalised and medical arrangements between the doctors treating Lakshan in Colombo and those at Apollo Hospital confirmed.
No words can express the gratitude the family feels for all those people out there who extended a helping hand to a boy they did not know.
“All of us think of these kind people when we offer Bodhi Pooja,” says Kulatunga.