First drop for cancer centre

Calcutta Telegraph, India
Sunday, March 27, 2005

First drop for cancer centre

A STAFF REPORTER

Calcutta, March 26: Siddhi Wohra’s parents had collected over Rs 10 lakh
from philanthropists for her bone marrow transplant.

The couple – both doctors – could not save their 15-year-old daughter. But
they will not let the money go waste. The Wohras will donate the sum for the
construction of a new cancer hospital in the city.

The 500-bedded hospital, part of Dr Devi Shetty’s dream of building a health
city here, is his fourth major project after the Rabindranath Tagore
International Institute for Cardiac Sciences, Shankar Netralaya and the
Armenian Church Trauma Centre.

In a live video-conference from Bangalore today, Shetty spoke to the Wohras.
“We want the world to know that the money has been donated for a noble
cause,” Swati, Siddhi’s mother, told him.

The hospital, to be built on a 20-acre plot, will be the nerve centre for
both cancer and bone marrow transplant.

“The construction work will start in a few months…. We are hopeful that in
two years’ time the hospital will be ready,” said Udayan Lahiri, the project
administrator.