‘Trail’: A walk for life

By Cheranka Mendis

A total of 670 km over 24 days and a hope for cancer patients, ‘Trail’ is a walk by the living, for life. Organised by the Colours of Courage Trust, ‘Trail’ is an attempt to raise awareness, collect funds and journey from Dondra to Point Pedro with the ultimate goal of raising Rs. 220 million to put up a paediatric cancer ward for the Jaffna Hospital. CEO of Mas Intimates and a Trustee of ‘Trail’ Nathan Sivagananathan told the Daily FT that what started off as a promise by his colleague and friend to himself has today become a beacon of hope to a mass number of people. Following are excerpts:

Q: What exactly is ‘Trail’ and what do you hope to achieve through it?

A: Trail is a project organised to raise awareness and collect funds to put up a paediatric cancer ward for the Jaffna Hospital. The plight of the Jaffna Hospital is a sad one where the children are warded in between beds or on the side of the beds of general patients. The hospital is highly congested. What we aim at doing is collect Rs. 220 million to create space in the Jaffna Hospital for a paediatric ward and then to build a separate radiation unit for cancer patients at Tellipalai Hospital.

At Tellipalai we hope to build separate units for female and male patients.

Q: How bad is the situation?

A: Currently the only facility dedicated to cancer care in the country is the National Cancer Institute in Maharagama; patients and families must travel from other parts of the country to Colombo for treatment. During this period, the trouble they (both the patient and family) go through is immense, which includes additional health complications. The number of patients from Jaffna is a considerable number and in 2010, some 4,000 cases were said to be reported.

In line with the Government policy to build multiple regional cancer care centres, the project hopes to build the facility in Jaffna which will benefit patients of the North, North West, North Central and Eastern Provinces.

Q: What problems will be mainly addressed through Trail?

A: Key is the inadequate space issue where at the Teaching Hospital, beds are kept in a congested manner to accommodate cancer patients who stay for a longer period for treatment. Then the Radiation Treatment Facility, which has been functioning since 9 June 2005 with limited radiation treatment facility at the Base Hospital in Tellipalai. We are also looking at addressing a linear accelerator and brachytherapy treatment. At present, patients who need mammography, bone scanning, radioactive iodine treatment and radiation treatment are being sent to the National Cancer Institute, Magaragama.

Q: How did the idea of walking for a cause come into play?

A: My friend and colleague, CEO of MAS Linea Aqua Sarinda Unamboowa had a made a promise to himself that he would walk the length of the country as a mark of his commitment to peace after the war was over. So we were talking about it and we thought ‘why not do it for a cause?’ We figured we could turn this into a unique fundraising initiative towards helping those suffering from cancer. That was the start of the planning that went into the project. The idea was born over a year ago.

Q: How does the project work?

A: On 1 July we will start the walk from Dondra and within 27 days we hope to reach Point Pedro. The catch-line is that the walkers who join us must walk 25 km a day. Trail identifies four kinds of walkers during the journey – day walker, segment walker, co-walker and virtual walker. Co-walker also known as ‘Trail Blazers’ will be walking the entire 670 km of ‘Trail,’ while segment walkers also known as ‘pathfinders’ will walk for three days, day trekkers will walk only on a particular day chosen while a virtual walkers are individuals who are unable to physically take part in the event but who will support the due course via fundraising.

There is a minimum collection that a walker needs to make. A co-walker needs to raise Rs. 200,000; a day walker needs to raise Rs. 5,000; while a segment walker needs to collect Rs. 30,000.

Q: How much are you planning to raise through the project?

A:  Through this unique fund raiser, we hope to collect a sum of Rs. 220 million. As at now we have collected Rs. 46,783,990. Within two weeks of launching the website we collected Rs. 30 million. Also, while the walk is going on, there will be a ‘giant collection till’ as well as a float by Janashakthi and a HNB mobile bank will accompany the walk to collect funds.

Q: What is the ‘buy a brick’ project?

A: We have bricks worth a total of Rs. 100 million to be sold during the campaign. There are 200,000 bricks going at US$ 5 each. A contributor can give the sum and collect a brick where the contributor’s name will be engraved and used as part of the hospital wall.

Q: Any big names coming forward to support the cause?

A: Of course; we received support from a number of sports personalities and local icons. T.M. Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardena, Muttiah Muralitharan, Angelo Mathews, Dilhara Fernando, Aravinda De Silva and Damayanthi Darsha are some of the key personalities. Namal Rajapaksa will flag off the walk on 1 July.

Q: Tell us about the Colours of Courage Trust, the main organiser of the event?

A: ‘Trail’ is an initiative organised by the Colours of Courage Trust, which was initially established in 2008 as a means of addressing the needs of the National Cancer Institute, Maharagama. We have over the last two years collected a sum of Rs. 65 million for the projects conducted by the trust. The trust has up to now set up a Medical Intensive Care Unit and a Surgical Intensive Care Unit in the Maharagama Cancer Hospital. The trust will keep upgrading the facilities of the National Cancer Institute in terms of machinery, building and maintenance by funding projects related to these areas.

The Board of Trustees include Dian Gomes, Hans Wijeyasuriya, R. Theagarajah, Senathi Rajah, Mahela Jayawardena, Ranjan Seevaratnam and myself. Colours of Courage Trust is a non profit organisation.

Q: What are the previous events that have been organised by the trust?

A: We organised a ‘Talk Leadership. Fight Cancer’ seminar, which was attended by over 300 delegates from 60 top corporates of Sri Lanka, where we raised Rs. 1.7 million of funds. We also conducted a tea auction with Expolanka Teas where 15 lots of Silver tip tea (‘t-sips’), the rarest and the most refined tea in the world, was auctioned for Rs. 6.4 million in total. There is also a six-a-side cricket tournament, one of the biggest annual events in the COC calendar, organised by the trust since 2009 where Rs. 10 million was raised.