Calabar – Mr Edward Duke, son of former culture and tourism minister Edem Duke, on Monday offered free eye and dental treatments to 500 aged persons as part of activities to mark his 30th birthday.
Duke, Managing Director of E&E Diamond 7 Construction Ltd, who offered the services at Ediba Primary Health Care Centre in Calabar, also gave medical lenses to some of the beneficiaries.
He said that the gesture was his own way of giving back to a society that had nurtured him to success.
Duke told the beneficiaries that the humanitarian gesture was targeted at the aged because they were more vulnerable and needed more care.
He thanked Mr Emmanuel Uweche, Chairman of the construction company, for contributing to the medical outreach, and promised to do more for the society in future.
“It is by the grace of God that I am 30 today. Clocking 30 means I am growing into real maturity and I am marking that by demonstrating that we must all be responsible for each other in the society,” he said.
He expressed happiness at the large turn out of the beneficiaries, and urged them to keep praying for a better Nigeria for all.
In a brief remark, Dr. Inyang Asibong, the Cross Rivers State Commissioner for Health, commended Duke for the initiative, and particularly commended him for focusing on the aged.
“One major way of caring for our aged is by giving them good health care. What you have done today is commendable and we, in the Ministry of Health, appreciate the gesture,’’ she said.
Dr. Betta Edu, Director-General, Cross River Primary HealthCare Agency, lauded Duke for the kind gesture, adding that the glasses and drugs would go a long way in correcting the sights of the beneficiaries.
One of the beneficiaries, 71-year-old Mrs. Patience Edem, who was tested and given medicated glasses, told NAN that she had been unable to see distant objects over time.
“The glasses have helped me from this defect; now, I can see very clearly,” she said.
Other beneficiaries, who spoke, lauded Duke for the medical outreach and for his love and care to the aged in the society. (NAN)
