COURTNEY Foster and her Kids for Charity organisation have raised another $200,000 to be handed over this month to a needy student in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.

Foster, currently a law student on the Cave Hill campus in Barbados, flew home last month to help raise the sum to finance this year’s Dr Norman Sinclair Memorial Medical Scholarship, which is named in honour of her late uncle.

Sinclair, a former schoolboy track star from St Mary High and Kingston College in the 1960s, later emigrated to the United States, where he studied and practised as a medical doctor in Jamaican communities in New York and Florida.

He died in 1996. The following year, Foster started the scholarship in his memory to assist medical students at Mona.

So far, 10 students have benefited from the scholarship fund, which has raised $1.4 million since 1997. Many of the beneficiaries have already started practising locally.

The bulk of the funds were raised via a gospel concert, titled “Remember Thy Creator” featuring Lubert Levy, Samantha Gooden, Assure and Levy’s Heritage, held at the Altamont Court Hotel, New Kingston in late December. The event was sponsored by KACS Auto Sales and Service and its chairman, Kenneth Shaw.

Foster, no newcomer to fund-raising, has always been able to achieve her targets since she started raising money for charity at age four in 1991. Her interest was triggered by an article in the newspapers about a little boy with an eye tumour whom she decided to assist.

The success of that effort led her to the Curlyn Johnson Basic School in the volatile area of Mountain View Avenue and, eventually, to the formation of Kids for Charity, while she was still at school in 1997.

Since 1991, Foster has raised more than $3 million for various charities and she is determined to continue her efforts despite her legal studies.

“I get a lot of help from the business community. They purchase the tickets for my events in blocks and that ensures that I reach my target even before the event,” she confessed. “So, while I was at Cave Hill preparing for the holidays, I started calling them up and they were just as responsive as in the past.”

The scholarship fund raised $150,000 in its first seven years; $180,000 in 2004; and $200,000 last year.