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Remember little Anji? The delightful little six-year old boy whom we met in The Smile Train-funded ward at Hyderabad’s Nizim’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) – and whose face lit up an earlier edition of The Moodie BLOG?
For our part we cannot forget him. And as we bade our farewells in Hyderabad last month to Anji, his mother and the great medical team led by Dr Mukunda Reddy at NIMS, it was in the heart-warming knowledge that the next day this brave little boy would have the serious cleft lip with which he was born operated on.
I can’t forget how beautiful his smile was – even with a cleft – especially when I told him he would one day play cricket for India.
Sadly, we learned from Dr Reddy last week that Anji didn’t have his operation – though he will.
“Unfortunately Anji has to wait as he was diagnosed to have a congenital heart problem called Tetralogy of Fallot, which has to be corrected before his lip is attended to,” Dr Reddy told us. “His cardiac surgery will be done at NIMS with our government sponsorship in a couple of months.”
A brave little boy is having to be even braver. But we’re willing to bet his cheeky smile is still shining brightly. And we know that his life will be a better one for all the great work – heart and cleft – that he receives at NIMS.
Please remember Anji and Dr Reddy and the NIMS team when you’re thinking whether to support the October 5 travel retail charity dinner in Hong Kong – ‘Turning Tears into Smiles’. In Anji’s case it is a matter of turning a lovely smile into an even better one, at which point the only tears will be of happiness.