‘La Renon TANKER Foundation for the Sake of Honour Award’ was presented to Mrs. Vasundhara Raghavan, the founder of the Kidney Warriors Foundation and a champion who works tirelessly to improve the lives of kidney patients. She was our guest of honour and she spoke on, ‘The Kidney Warriors - A New Outlook to the Kidney Disease Challenge’. She shared her experience in donating her kidney to her son and the journey then on. It was her concern, on the lack of proper information about the disease, diet, transplants and much more that made her start the Kidney Warriors Foundation which is mainly a Facebook and WhatsApp group where thousands of people share their experiences and learn from each other. She also highlighted that there was a great lack of nephrologists in India and that the government should work on this. The award carried a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh, a citation and a gold medallion.
Our 27th Annual Charity Awards Nite was held on Saturday, January 25, 2020 at Hotel Savera, RK Salai, Chennai. For the past 11 years, TANKER has used this special night as a platform to recognise and appreciate the efforts of professionals working tirelessly to improve the lives of people, especially the underprivileged with Chronic Kidney Disease.
TANKER presents research and service awards every year during Republic Day Eve Nite. TANKER Charity Nite recognises and honours doctors for their services to people. On January 25, 2020, the following awards were presented:
Mr. M.M. Murugappan, Chairman, Murugappa Group, was our Chief Guest.
He addressed the gathering and presented the 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. R.M. Anjana of Mohan Diabetes Research Foundation for her research on ‘Unsupervised machine learning model to identify the type 2 diabetes subgroups and their risk of kidney disease’. 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. Prahalathan K.K., Co-Founder, Bhumi, for his selfless service in serving the needy and steering a huge volunteer force, especially during the Chennai floods in 2015. 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. M.A. Muthusethupathi, the father of Nephrology in Tamilnadu, and Dr. Nandita Choudhury, the first Nephrologist in the North East (Guwahati). 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 Dr. C.V. Krishnaswami who has been creating awareness on diabetes through his books, talks and free clinics. 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 of Rs. 1,00,000 was given to three under privileged deserving kidney failure patients from Coimbatore. Mr. Marteen, Coimbatore Dialysis Unit Manager, received the endowment on behalf of the patients.
TANKER conducted Dialysis Patients Ramp Walk, the brainchild of Dr Georgi Abraham, and crowned both Ms. TANKER and Mr. TANKER as part of their 27th Annual Awards Nite. This special programme was presented by TANKER Trustee, Ms. Revathy. The outfits for the patients were donated by Ms. Samastha and Fab India. Ms. Revathy's personal makeup artist helped in grooming the 16 participants. Ms. Uma Mageshwari was crowned Ms. TANKER, and Mr Regi, Mr Lal Bahadur and Mr Mahendran were collectively crowned Mr TANKER. All contestants received prizes and special prizes were given to the winners. It was truly a wonderful and moving experience for the audience as well as the participants. The dialysis patients were overjoyed at participating and said it made them feel so special and great and thanked Ms. Revathy who presented the Ramp Walk and TANKER Foundation for having organized the event.
