30th TANKER Annual Charity and Awards Nite 2023

TANKER Foundation celebrated its 30th Annual Charity and Awards Nite on Wednesday, 25th January 2023  at Hotel Savera, RK Salai, Chennai. The event was a hybrid programme with live streaming. The programme began with The Mr. Venkatesan & Mrs. Malathi Venkatesan TANKER Foundation Memorial Lecture which was delivered by Dr. Gomathy Narasimhan, Senior Consultant- Liver & Renal Transplant Surgeon, Chairman, Medical Advisory Board, Dr.Rela Institute & Medical Centre, Chennai. "INSPIRE TO ASPIRE”. Dr. Gomathy Narasimhan shared her experiences and several heart-warming stories about the people who made a difference in her life-Doctors, Patients and Teachers who taught her compassion and kindness and empathy. She said transplants are not enough, and that lifestyle changes had to be made. 

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 terrible disease. The Awards Nite was a function to recognise research in Nephrology and Service to the public. 

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), the Central Government, the Greater Chennai Corporation, family, friends, Rotary, Lions, Round Table, FreeMasons, Ladies Circle,Inner Wheel,Corporates, individuals and other valuable donors . She thanked the valuable staff of TANKER for being the Angels on Earth ,especially for their commitment and dedication during the pandemic. TANKER runs 14 dialysis Units in Chennai,Madurai,Vellore, and Tiruppur and does 7946 dialysis a month serving 796 patients. So far TANKER has done  531,967 free and subsidized dialysis for 2431 patients and given financial support of Rs. 3.98 Lakhs to 4757  patients. TANKER has reached out to 1.92 lakh people with 1339 Awareness Programmes and also screened 37,616 individuals for early detection of kidney disease through 460 screening camps. 

The  Chief Guest Dr. Malini Parthasarathy, Chairperson, The Hindu Group, Publishing Private Ltd said that she admired and appreciated the dedicated work that TANKER does and that everyone involved took ownership of TANKER. She also talked about CKD being a major public health challenge and that it was the need of the hour for more resources to be made available from the public and private sectors for addressing awareness,organ donation and all related problems. She 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. Manish Ramesh Balwani, for his research into “An Unforeseen Entity in Uncontrolled Hypertension with Kidney Dysfunction: Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome”. The award carried a prize of Rs. 2,00,000/-, a citation and a gold medallion. Dr. Manish Ramesh Balwani donated his cheque back to TANKER Foundation. 

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 Vivek Kute,  The award carried a prize of Rs. 1,00,000/-, a citation and a gold medallion. 

The K. Venkatanarayana TANKER Foundation Awareness Award given to an individual for creating awareness of any disease, mental, physical and social, was awarded  to Mrs. Manjula Kalyan who has been working tirelessly with her team through Swayamkrushi, created national awareness of intellectual disabilities and devoted herself to the NGO that was started 40 years ago. 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 Dr. Gomathy Narasimhan, Senior Consultant- Liver & Renal Transplant Surgeon, Chairman, Medical Advisory Board, Dr.Rela Institute & Medical Centre, Chennai. 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. Tonmoy Das, Guwahati. and Dr.(Prof.) Sandeep Guleria, New Delhi , who has served tirelessly in the field of kidney disease. The awards carried a  prize of Rs. 1,00,000/-, a citation and a gold medallion each. Dr. Tonmoy Das donated his cheque back to the TANKER Foundation. 

The Ashok Sankaralingam TANKER Foundation Patient Endowment - One year dialysis support was given for 4 under privileged patients with kidney failure -Rs. 2,00,000/-. 

Honouring of Enablers – DGP Dr. Sylendra Babu IPS in participating and completing the 100 Kms cycling rally to raise funds for the BP Machine project and DGP Dr. Jayanth Murali IPS in running 4 full marathons and participating and completing the cycling rally to raise funds for the BP Machine project and for a dialysis machine. TANKER Staff Awards were given for Service, Dedication, Commitment, Punctuality and Awareness Initiative to several TANKER staff. This was followed by Dinner. Grateful thanks were conveyed to TANKER's well wishers, sponsors, the staff and management of Savera, the Media and donors and especially Mrs. Nina Reddy for sponsoring the dinner at Savera Hotel.