RIYADH — Friends of Cancer Care Hospital & Research Center arranged an introductory session followed by a dinner at a local banquet hall here recently. It was attended by scores of prominent Pakistani families. Convener Shafqat Ali Khan presided over the event, Pakistani Ambassador Manzoor ul Haq was the chief guest, Professor Iqbal Ejaz Baig ably conducted the session which formally began with the recitation of the verses of Holy Qur'an by Sanobar Sani. Ambassador Haq praised the efforts of Dr. Shaharyar Khan and his team for taking this noble initiative, "our country is desperately in the need of such health care projects, it's a great humanitarian service and the need of the hour", he said. Shamshad Ali Siddique, the deputy convener of the Friends of Cancer Care Hospital emphasized on the importance and the need of the 400 bed cancer hospital going to be built on a total area of 23 acres which is the second of its kind in Lahore after the Shaukat Khanam Cancer hospital initiated by the famous cricketer turned politician Imran Khan. "The hospital is planned to treat a large number of cancer patients irrespective of their stage of disease, patients who required palliative care would also be accommodated so no patient will be refused treatment," Shamshad said. Prominent writer Farhat Parveen graced the occasion as the guest of honor and stressed the Pakistani community needs to step forward for this noble cause. She also gifted her latest book of Urdu poetry "Guftam" to some of the attendees. Shafqat Ali Khan thanked the attendees and said we desperately need more and more cancer care facilities in our country as the numbers of cancer patients are increasing day by day. A slide show presentation illustrated the construction stages of the hospital starting with the establishment of palliative care facility of 60 beds followed by hospice services for providing treatment to the cancer patients at homes through a network of trained family physicians and an outpatient ward facilitated to provide 200 patients on daily basis. The Cancer Care Hospital and Research Center is the initiative of top Pakistani cancer specialist Dr. Shaharyar Khan, Dammam based renowned writer and poetess Farhat Parveen is the director of the cancer care hospital. Almost 300,000 people in Pakistan contract cancer every year and many die on daily basis due to cancer due to non-availability of the treatment, professionals and high costs of medicines, At this stage Pakistan requirement is almost 20 hospitals of this kind.
