ITW adopts a campaign to save 11-year-old Zeus Agastya, Pledges to match every donation made
Oct 08, 2022
Bangalore (Karnataka) /Delhi [India], October 8 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Medical emergencies can affect everyone, but when the patient is a child with an aggressive form of cancer, the urgency is multiplied. Zeus Agastya Krishna Bannerjee is an 11-year-old boy diagnosed with Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), his family detected cancer earlier in the year and immediately began treatment, but unfortunately, a relapse meant they must turn to Car T Cell therapy, a treatment only available abroad and costing around Rs 5 crores. The huge cost meant they had to turn to the kindness of the community to get the money needed and started a crowdfunding campaign.
As the family began their crowdfunding efforts, the campaign happened to cross paths with the people at ITW Universe, a sport, entertainment consulting firm. As the informal networks within the company rallied to the cause of the child ITW Universe as a team decided to step in and help because coming together as a community in the face of a challenge is one of the most human of traits but the essence of it is sometimes lost in the transactional world of the corporate.
Leveraging their business, personal and professional contacts they have helped amplify the cause with celebrities, sports personalities and influencers sharing Zeus's story and an appeal for help. But rather than just stop there, taking their commitment to give Zeus a fighting chance to a higher level, ITW has pledged to match all donations made to the cause. "For us this is a personal effort, the ITW family has come together and we are doing all we can to raise awareness as well as share and amplify this as widely as we can, because no amount is too small towards saving the life of a child," says Bhairav Shanth, Co-Founder ITW Universe. "As a company we have come together on so many occasions to pull off incredible projects, so why can't we come together for something that could be priceless in what we achieve?" he added.
With emergency medical costs rising rapidly, fundraising through campaign platforms like Milaap, Ketto and others are at times the only hope that family members are left with. But often such campaigns are stymied by limited reach and only a trickle of donations when the targets are astronomically high. This initiative could set a new precedent in how the community comes together and helps such campaigns reach their goal quicker blending personal and professional networks to achieve something humanly remarkable. More importantly it helps patients get much needed and often lifesaving care faster. "Given the time sensitive medical need we are pleading to other like-minded people and companies to come forward just in time to help Zeus, the boy is just 11 years old and too young to comprehend the situation, he has been told he has a bad strain of Covid. Corporate Social Responsibility need not always be bound by formal agreements and preset initiatives. It's about making a real difference," said Bhairav Shanth.
Zeus's campaign is currently hosted on Ketto and can be found at the link below if anyone would like to donate.
This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
