It is an unsettling fact that Ghana, with a population of 28million people has only one functioning cardiothoracic centre in Accra, the capital, in the far south of the country. In Central and Northern Ghana served by Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), where nearly 15 million people live, there is no access to cardiac surgery.

This is despite that heart valve disease due to rheumatic fever is extremely common in the region. In in a study conducted in Kumasi, rheumatic heart disease accounted for 22% of all admissions with heart failure in this hospital.

Most people affected by this condition are young. The median age of the patients admitted with heart failure secondary to rheumatic heart disease is just 29 years old. No patients receive surgery for their rheumatic heart disease

Therefore our aim is to firstly establish a regular programme of cardiac surgical missions to KATH, commencing with our first mission on the 23rd of Feb 2019 to 1st of March 2019, and hopefully establishing a link and the possibility of doing regular missions thereafter. It is also an aspiration to attempt to support the staff to aspire to become independent operators and to support the establishment of a regular programme of heart surgery in the hospital.

On this first mission we will be operating on 10 patients who will otherwise have no access to life saving heart surgery

We are a team of 10 health care professionals including, heart surgeons, specialist intensive care and theatre nurses, cardiologist and perfusionist (experts who run a heart lung machine). We are all self paying but we do need money to buy equipment and medical supplies for the mission.

We hope you feel able to support this mission

Please come and enjoy an evening of entertainment and support the team on their mission!

Saturday 17th November, 7:30pm - 11:30pm @ Stockton Masonic Hall - TICKET PRICE £15

The evening includes live music from local band The VanBoy Squares, disco, raffle and delicious pie & pea supper!