Get 5-year-old Joshua heart surgery

(PEOPLE DONATING FROM NIGERIA, PLEASE SEE NOTE AT BOTTOM)

Joshua Damilola Owolabi, one of three triplets, was born with a hole in his heart in December 2017.

At the age of 6 months, he had life-saving surgery in India, thanks to the generosity and kindness of others.

Now, though, Joshua needs to have surgery again.

Nigeria’s healthcare system is poor. That means Joshua, who also has Down Syndrome, a common predictor of the heart condition that he was born with, can’t get the treatment he needs there.

The treatment is expensive – more than $7,000 (£5737) for the assessment, surgery and recovery care. Then there are flights to India; flights to and from southern Nigeria, where the family lives, to Lagos to apply for visas; the visas for Joshua and his mother Jane, who will be travelling with him; and other logistical and travel costs.

Joshua will be treated at Naryana Health in Bangalore, where his life was saved in 2018 at a hospital that specialises in paediatric cardiac surgery .

The sooner we can get Joshua the £6,500 we are trying to raise, the sooner he can get the surgery he so desperately needs and the sooner he can return home to the love of his parents, Tife and Jane, and his triplet brothers Jayden and Joachim.

Joshua (right) and his triplet brothers Jayden and Joachim

We are organising this fundraiser to help Tife, an amazing journalist, Reuters colleague and friend of Rachel's. Anything you can spare, no matter how small, would be gratefully received.

Thank you,

Rachel and Tony

Here is a message from Tife and his wife Jane:

Joshua’s health has been deteriorating rapidly and the recommended treatment is a complex heart surgery that can only be performed by highly skilled medical professionals.

Unfortunately, the cost of this life-saving surgery is beyond our means. The financial burden has left our family in a state of distress and uncertainty.

I understand that times are tough for everyone and it is not easy to help strangers in need. However, any contribution, no matter how small, will bring us one step closer to saving my son's life and giving him a chance at a healthy future.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude in advance for considering our request. We remain hopeful that your compassion and generosity will help us in our fight to save our son's life.

FOR PEOPLE DONATING FROM NIGERIA:

GoFundMe's payment processor blocks payments from Nigeria, even when using a foreign bank account. If you want to donate from Nigeria, or another country that isn’t supported on GoFundMe, please send me a message here (click the envelope next to my name on the right), or DM me on X/Twitter @rachelmsavage , and we can arrange another way to transfer the money.