• 25,000 children participated to raise awareness for a Healthy Heart
• With increasing popularity amongst Children; LHM will expand to more cities in future — Ness Wadia
• Funds generated from the marathon to be utilised for the Paediatric Cardiac Surgery department ● In 2017, Wadia Hospitals conducted 200 Paediatric cardiac surgeries; This year (2018) it’s expected to conduct 500 heart surgeries

Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children in association with Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust organized the 5th edition of the children’s most favourite event- “Little Hearts Marathon 2018” at Bandra Kurla Complex on 7th January 2018. More than 25,000 children from across Maharashtra participated in the marathon.

Mrs Amruta Fadnavis, Wife of Hon. Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr Devendra Fadnavis, graced the occasion and flagged off the marathon. Also present at the flag-off event were Dr Ramdas Ambatkar, State General Secretary, BJP Maharashtra, Ms. Shraddha Jadhav, Corporator & Ex Mayor of Mumbai, Mr Arvind Sawant, MP, Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust, Mr Rajesh Mahapuskar, Director of the awardwinning Marathi film ‘Ventilator’, Mr Ness Wadia, MD, The Wadia Group and Dr Minnie Bodhanwala, CEO, Wadia Hospitals. Approximately 100,000 babies are born each year with “major” and “critical” Congenital heart diseases (CHD) in India. As symptoms for congenital heart diseases begin at 1 or 2 months of age, often the diagnosis of the same is missed; making it the biggest reason for increased mortality and morbidity. Due to general lack of awareness, approximately 10% of infant mortality in India can be accounted for by CHD alone. The number of children who are in waiting list for heart surgeries is more then 500 in Maharashtra state alone. Also the rate of cardiac diseases in young adults is increasingly alarmingly with sedentary lifestyle. The Marathon also promotes the message of a healthy active lifestyle amongst children. Mrs. Amruta Fadnavis Said “Awareness of doing physical activity is very important in children. Running, walking will help them to keep healthy. Today’s generation play on laptops, phone, and video game. Little hearts marathon has seen more than 25000 children participated for healthy lifestyle & creating awareness. She concluded by appreciating the initiative of Wadia hospitals of ‘Save Heart Save Life’ and gave them best wishes for the event.”

Ness Wadia, MD, Wadia Group, said, “We are extremely happy to see how Little Hearts Marathon has evolved over the last 5 years. The zeal with which children have participated year after year gives us sheer joy and encourages us to do more to ‘Save Hearts Save Lives’. In our endeavour to have no waiting lists for cardiac surgeries throughout the country, we will be taking Little Hearts Marathon to more cities across India in coming years. We wish more and more people come forward from the community to support this noble cause.” Dr. Minnie Bodhanwala, CEO Wadia Hospitals, said, “We dedicate the success of Little Hearts Marathon to the lovely children who enthusiastically participate to support children of their age suffering from heart diseases. Today there exist only a handful of specialized centres offering dedicated paediatric cardiac services across India. Wadia Hospitals is the first children’s hospital to have introduced expert Paediatric Cardiac Care services in the bustling and heavily populated metropolis of Mumbai. At Wadia we have a specialized team including Paediatric Cardiologist, Paediatric cardiac Surgeon and Paediatric Cardiac Intensivists,” added Dr Bodhanwala.