Doctors examined him and confirmed that Muhammad too is suffering from the condition. Given Afra’s experience, Rafeeq and Mariyumma, their mother, consulted the doctors regarding their son. It was found that she was down with spinal muscular atrophy. Though the committee had started collecting funds through their sources, it was Afra’s video - aired by news channels - that proved the turning point.Īfra was left paralysed when she was only two-and-a-half. That is when local residents formed a committee with Mattool panchayat president Farisha Abid as the chairperson and TP Abbas as the convener. “I had no idea how to collect so much money,” said Rafeeq. ‘We couldn’t believe the outpouring of support’ Rafeeq, their father, had returned from the Gulf - where he worked as an AC mechanic - during pandemic and was crestfallen. The doctors at MIMS Hospital, Kozhikode, treating both Afra and Muhammad, had said the boy’s genetic disorder could be corrected if he is administered the medicine before turning two. The video went viral, and on Monday, she appeared live on FB to announce that they had received the amount required and that people need not deposit any more money.

On July 2, Afra, sitting on her wheelchair, had put out a video on Facebook saying her brother needed Zolgensma, the world’s most expensive medicine priced at Rs 18 crore per dose that had to be imported from the United States. And thousands across the globe donated generously to the account opened for the benefit of the child belonging to Mattool panchayat. But the heartrending appeal of Afra, the 15-year-old sister of one-and-a-half-year-old Muhammad, seeking help to treat her brother suffering from spinal muscular atrophy and to enable him to walk without anybody’s support moved hearts.

KANNUR: The task of collecting Rs 18 crore appeared impossible even to those who had begun the crowdfunding initiative.

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