WHITATHON is L V Prasad Eye Institute’s annual cause-related running event to raise awareness and funds for

children with retinoblastoma eye cancer

5^th edition of LVPEI’s Whitathon Run to be held on 21 May 2023

• Retinoblastoma eye cancer most commonly affects children below 3 years of age (90%).
• 20 to 25% of cases of eye cancer worldwide in children are from India, and 50% of cases worldwide lose their lives due to late detection and inadequate treatment.
• Retinoblastoma is curable if the tumour is detected and treated early, thus saving the life, eye, and vision of the child.

VVS Laxman, Head Coach, National Cricket Academy, will be doing the honours of unveiling the T-shirt and medal for the fifth edition of the WHITATHON RUN 2023 organized by L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI). Like every year, this year too Hyderabad Runners is supporting this run.

The Fifth Edition of the WHITATHON RUN will be organized on 21 May 2023, Sunday, at the University of Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad. The run has four categories: 10K (Timed run), 5K (Timed run), 5K (Fun run) and 3K (Fun run). Whitathon is a qualifier run for NMDC Hyderabad Marathon 2023 powered by IDFC FIRST Bank.

WHITATHON, initiated in 2018, is L V Prasad Eye Institute’s annual cause-related event focusing on raising awareness and funds for early diagnosis and treatment of Retinoblastoma – a Life and Vision-threatening Eye Cancer in Children. One of the most common symptoms of Retinoblastoma is White Reflex (white glow) in a child’s eye. Through this run, LVPEI aims to raise awareness among the public that if they spot a ‘White Reflex’ in a child’s eye, it could be a sign of eye cancer that needs immediate medical intervention.

Speaking on the occasion VVS Laxman said, Whenever I come to LV Prasad Eye Institute, it reminds me about how to achieve excellence. Ramesh Prasad garu and his dad were instrumental in establishing this institute and then the passion and pride with which Dr GN Rao garu and his team have established and at the same time made sure that this Institute is probably the best in the world as far as eye care is concerned and beyond eye care. The way they touched the lives of innumerable people, its just inspirational. As a sportsperson who always wanted to represent the country and get laurels to the country in the game of cricket, one thing we always strive to achieve is excellence and excellence is achieved over a period of time, you maintain consistency and deliver results year after year and that’s what LV Prasad Eye Institute has done for so many years, almost 37 years and that dream is still continuing, that’s the beauty of life. All successful people and organisations are those who have a dream, achieve their dream and have another dream as they strive to achieve those dreams. They touched the lives of so many people and they continue to do that, this initiative is one such initiative of LV Prasad Eye Institute. In 2018 I got involved with this and the only reason I continue to be with this is the passion of Dr Swathi Kaliki and her team in spreading the awareness and spreading the message to all the parents that eye cancer can be cured, can be treated. It is essential that taking action at an appropriate time is very important in addressing this issue of Retinoblastoma. We want to ensure that no child in our country is affected by this dreadful eye cancer. I am confident that the fifth edition of the Whitathon Run will be a grand success and by 2030 we should phase out this dreadful cancer. I am sure that we can achieve it, all the support from each one of you is very important to achieve that dream. This Run is not only about spreading awareness but also about raising funds, the treatment is expensive, but what LV Prasad Eye Institute has done over so many years is that even though the child or a parent can’t afford the treatment the Institute goes on with the treatment to help the patient to overcome the illness. So its not possible to do that without donors, therefore everyone should chip in, because at the end of the day the more you give the more fulfilling the life is, that’s the beauty of giving. I am sure all of you will come forward and make this Whitathon successful in your own way and contribute in your own way by spreading the message of Retinoblastoma.   

Dr Swathi Kaliki, Ocular Oncologist and Head of the Operation Eyesight Universal Institute for Eye Cancerat L V Prasad Eye Institute said, “It is important to raise awareness about the common symptoms of retinoblastoma in children and educate the public, especially young parents, on the importance of seeking timely medical care. Retinoblastoma is curable if the tumour is detected and treated early, thus saving the life, eye, and vision of the child.”

“VVS Laxman has been an ambassador for WHITATHON since its inception. We are truly grateful to him for supporting the cause of raising awareness about the early diagnosis and treatment for retinoblastoma eye cancer in young children. Let’s together pledge that – No child dies of eye cancer because of lack of awareness and treatment”, she further added.

Treating eye cancer can be a costly and prolonged affair. The funds raised from this run go towards providing free treatment to children from less privileged backgrounds who are afflicted with retinoblastoma. Additionally, the funds help to further research into developing innovative treatment alternatives for this ailment. The funds raised from WHITATHON have supported the treatment of more than 2000 children with retinoblastoma eye cancer.

Dr Gullapalli N Rao, Founder-Chair, L V Prasad Eye Institute; I was watching the sixers hit by Laxman of the bouncers from McGrath and that is what Dr Swathi Kaliki wants to do with Retinoblastoma and all forms of cancers, to hit the cancers of all forms out of the pavilion, so that no child dies needlessly from eye cancers. Our Institute’s journey began about 37 years ago with aspiration of reconciling excellence with equity, high quality care along the lines of the best of the medical centres in the world and make it available to everybody  irrespective of their ability to pay. Fortunately we have been able to live up to that aspiration all through this journey. Along the way we have many milestones, laurels, accolades, both for the institution and individuals who made the institution so great. At the end of the first 25 years of our journey we have decided to pursue two strategic paths for the next 25 years, one of the two is what we call ‘Institutes of Excellence’ that become global resource centres for a niche or important area of blindness and eye problem. One such is the Institute for Eye Cancer. When you look at the magnitude of eye cancer in comparison to, for example cataract, is not very big, but the damage done by cancer is long lasting and these children have long life ahead, we are saving life, we are saving sight, in some lucky cases we can even save the eye and sight. So it is with that intention we began to focus increasingly on eye cancers and research that came out of Eye research Institute is also widely recognised and our Clinicians and Scientists received numerous honours because of their work in this area. But I think no honour can match the satisfaction of saving the life of a child. We are now present in 280 locations across the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Orissa, 250 primary vision care centres in remote rural and tribal areas as of last week, 22 secondary level eye hospitals in rural areas, three tertiary centres in Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam and Bhubaneshwar and at the top is this Institute at Hyderabad. We have taken a vow that no child in our coverage area by the year 2030, will die needlessly of eye cancer. We will identify every single one of them, make sure they are identified at the right time through our various approaches of primary, secondary and tertiary care and make sure their life is saved their eye is saved and perhaps their sight is saved. For all that we need lot of support and in that context like to thank all the sponsors, Hyderabad Runners and others for the support, hope that support continues to enable us to tackle this problem more vigorously and shall save more lives.        

Dr Merle Fernandes, Chair, Director, Kallam Anji Reddy Campus, said, I thank VVS Laxman garu for being here today, he has been a very special part of this movement for so many years. I am sure this Run being hosted in four cities currently to become a national event by 2030. I am sure we can proudly say that by 2030 we have taken it to all corners of the country.

We would like to acknowledge and extend our sincere thanks to our sponsors for WHITATHON 2023: Gold Sponsors – Techwave Consulting India Pvt Ltd, National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) Ltd, GebauerMedizintechnik GMBH and Essilor Luxottica Group; Silver Sponsors – Vision RX Lab Pvt Ltd and BiomedixOptotechnik& Devices Pvt Ltd; Bronze Sponsors –IDBI Bank Ltd and Delta Lens Pvt Ltd; Supporter -Alankar Traders and Asian Surgical Company and Asian Engineering Company.

To register for WHITATHON 2023, click- https://shorturl.at/hBGTY.

Along with VVS Laxman, the WHITATHON T-shirt will be unveiled by members from the L V Prasad Eye Institute: Dr Gullapalli N Rao, Founder-Chair; Mrs Pratibha Rao, Board member; Dr Rajeev Reddy, Vice Chair; Dr Merle Fernandes, Director, Kallam Anji Reddy Campus; and Dr Swathi Kaliki, Head,The Operation Eyesight Universal Institute for Eye Cancer.