Driven by the need to stop the alarming rate of heart diseases especially among children and also reduce the cost of going abroad for treatment, retired top footballer and founder, The Kanu Heart Foundation (KHF) has revealed his plans to partner with successful heart specialists in India to build a cardiac centre for the treatment of heart diseases in the country.

Kanu who announced that a public fund raising to support the project will commence in February 2012 disclosed that at least 250 open-heart surgeries will be done annually, while 12 year-old children will be given free treatment the cost of adults' will be subsidized.

"You are all living witnesses to what happened to me after I led Nigeria U-23 to the Olympic Gold Medal. My  career was threatened and my life was in jeopardy. "

It is worthy of note that the foundation has spent 4.2 million dollars in assisting heart patients since it started operation. The money it costs us to send two children abroad will take care of 10 children if the surgeries were performed in Nigeria".

Source: Vanguard