CHENNAI: The Tanker Foundation celebrated its 33rd annual charity and awards night on January 25 (Sunday) at Hotel Savera, RK Salai. The event was also live streamed.

The programme began with The Mr Venkatesan & Mrs Malathi Venkatesan TANKER Foundation Memorial Lecture which was delivered by Jayashree Lakshminarayanan, a champion with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who has been fighting it with fortitude and resilience from the age of seven.

Dr Georgi Abraham, founder trustee, Tanker Foundation, welcomed the gathering, and urged everyone to do regular blood-sugar tests and blood pressure checks, as BP and diabetes and taking unprescribed painkillers were the main causes of CKD.

Latha Kumaraswami, managing trustee, Tanker Foundation, stated: “Tanker now runs 15 dialysis units – 10 in Chennai, one each in Madurai, Vellore, Tirupur, Dindigul and Coimbatore, and does 9,964 dialysis a month serving 942 patients.

Chief Guest Antony Lobo, Consul of Spain and Head of Consulate in Chennai, promised to get CSR donations from Spanish companies for Tanker.