Medical equipment valued at $7.7 million, purchased from part-proceeds raised by the 2014 Sagicor Sigma Corporate Run, was handed over to the Sickle Cell Unit, Tropical Medicine Research Institute (TMRI) during a presentation ceremony last Monday.

Among the items presented were a Resolve Isoelectric Focusing System and a D-10TM Haemoglobin Analyser System.

The Sickle Cell Unit, located at the University of the West Indies, Mona, is one of four child care health facilities that received support from proceeds of the $21,679,075 raised from the 16th staging of the 5K run, walk and wheelchair event.

The other charities include the Sickle Cell Trust in Mandeville, the Special Care Nursery at the University Hospital of the West Indies, and the Jamaica Kidney Kids Foundation.

“Sickle Cell is a disease that has touched the lives of many Jamaicans, either directly or indirectly. The Sickle Cell Unit, TMRI has done good work and we are happy to lend this support. Sagicor has put in place a maintenance schedule to ensure that the machines donated today will function well in the years to come,” a company release quoted Sagicor Group Jamaica President and CEO Richard Byles.

Dr Jennifer Knight-Madden, director of the Sickle Cell Unit, said: “The donation will help the Sickle Cell Unit in the east and the Sickle Cell Trust in the west to actually do islandwide screening for sickle cell disease, at last.”

The Sickle Cell Unit has a history of successful fund-raising for improving clinical services and now focuses on the development of services for sickle cell patients, promoting clinical research, and developing educational tools on the disease. The unit is one of the largest specialist centres for sickle cell disease in the world.