28th TANKER Annual Charity and Awards Nite 2021

TANKER Foundation celebrated its 28th Annual Charity and Awards Nite on Monday, 25th January 2021 at Hotel Savera, RK Salai, Chennai. The event was a hybrid programme with live streaming. The Mr. Venkatesan & Mrs. Malathi Venkatesan TANKER Foundation Memorial Lecture was delivered by Prof. Nithya S. Krishnan, Consultant Transplant Nephrologist, NHS Trust, UK. She spoke on "My Journey in Nephrology from Chennai to London”.The challenges she faced included gender and race bias and her grit and determination helped her reach where she is today as Professor and Head of Transplantation in the NHS Trust in the UK. She emphasised that there is no substitute for hard work and being able to persevere and endure keeping in mind the cause of helping people is what keeps her going.

Dr. Georgi Abraham, Founder Trustee, TANKER Foundation 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.The Awards nite was a function to recognise research in Nephrology and Service to the public.This year was special as along with the Awards, all the TANKER staff and other Healthcare workers were recognised as the Angels on Earth who selflessly served and are still doing so during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Mrs.Latha Kumaraswami,Managing Trustee ,TANKER Foundation talked about TANKER's small beginnings in 1993 and that with help from the Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS), Greater Chennai Corporation, family, friends, Rotary, Lions, Round Table, FreeMasons, Ladies Circle,Inner Wheel,Corporates and other valuable donors,TANKER runs 11 dialysis Units in Chennai,Madurai,Vellore, Coimbatore and Tiruppur and do 5825 dialysis a month serving 614 patients. So far TANKER has done  380,857 free and subsidized dialysis for 1802 patients and given financial support of Rs. 480 Lakhs to 3497 patients. TANKER has reached out to 1.89 lakh people with 1279 Awareness Programmes and also screened 35,654 individuals for early detection of kidney disease through 418 screening camps.

The Chief Guest Mr. K. Pandiarajan, Minister for Tamil Official, Language and Tamil Culture and Archeology said that he admired and appreciated the dedicated work that TANKER does and that everyone involved took ownership of TANKER.He also talked about the various Govt medical schemes that were there for the benefit of the needy. 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. Nanditha Arun  of Mohan Diabetes Research Foundation for her research into  Director and Consultant Diabetologist of Dr. A. Ramachandran’s Diabetes Hospital for her research into “Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2Inhibitors in patients with type 2 diabetes – A longitudinal observational study”. . 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. Mishra Vineet Vashistha, Director, Smt. G.R. Doshi & Smt. K.M. Mehta Institute of Kidney Diseases & Research Centre - Dr. H.L. Trivedi Institute of Transplantation Sciences, Gujarat. . 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 Prof Nithya S Krishnan, Consultant Transplant Nephrologist, NHS Trust, UK. 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. S C Dash (Bhubaneswar) and Dr. Nammalwar (Chennai).   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  to SCARF Youth Mental Health Program headed by Dr. Shiva Prakash Srinivasan.  The award carried a prize of Rs. 1,00,000/-, a citation and a gold medallion.

Mr. Shankar Iyer TANKER Foundation Innovator Award was given to Dr. Lloyd Vincent, Bangalore for his innovation of an Indian made Haemodialysis Machine which will be available in May 2021. 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 4 under privileged patients with kidney failure -Rs. 1,00,000/-.The Dean of Madras Medical College and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital Dr.E.Theranirajan and his staff were honoured for their selfless service during the pandemic. The new revamped TANKER website was officially launched. This was followed by TANKER Staff and Angels on Earth Recognition Awards, Prizes and Dinner. Grateful thanks especially to Mrs. Nina Reddy for sponsoring the dinner at Savera Hotel.