The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Join hands against cancer: Amitabh

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Saturday, Jul 28, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Join hands against cancer: Amitabh

Special Correspondent

Appeals for support from all sections for its eradication

PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

All for a cause: Amitabh Bachchan with a child suffering from cancer at the Kamineni Hospital in Hyderabad on Friday.

HYDERABAD: Superstar Amitabh Bachchan here on Friday lent his support to the fight against cancer and urged all sections of society to join him in the endeavour.

“I don’t smoke, nor do I chew tobacco. Globally, I am told cancer-affected patients by the year 2020 would number about 20 million, with 70 per cent of them from the developing world,” he said, talking to a packed gathering at Kamineni Hospitals where he was shooting for Ram Gopal Varma’s sequel to ‘Sarkar’.

Also present were son Abhishek Bachchan and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai. “At this impromptu get-together, let us talk about the fight. I am here only for the film but when the hospital management sent word, asking if I could speak against cancer, I saw no reason why I should not,” he said.

Cites statistics

Reading out from a prepared text, he reeled out statistics aimed at giving the audience an idea of the damage that cancer was wreaking on civilisation.

Also on stage with him were Kamineni Hospitals CEO C.R. Patnaik and vice-president Gautam Naha, with chief oncologist Ashwin M. Shah, who did the honours. As they walked into the Indira Auditorium in the hospital campus, they were welcomed with resounding cheers from the audience. Once onstage, the Big ‘B’ was welcomed with a bouquet by a six year-old girl treated for cancer of the lymph node in the hospital. Mr. Abhishek Bachchan too got a bouquet from a young boy still undergoing treatment.

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