CAMBRIDGE, St James – A Kingston businessman and businesswoman have underwritten the local hospital fees-J$497,000 – and cost of an open heart surgery – US$1,250 – for 14-year-old Cambridge High School student Shantoy Lawrence.

The cheques which were made payable to the University Hospital of the West Indies cleared the way for the ailing girl to receive the critical surgery to correct her heart disorder, Tetralogy of Fallot.

“We are praising God for the kindness of these individuals. Because of them Shantoy is going to have that critical surgery!” said an elated Yvonne Ward-Scott, the school’s guidance counsellors who coordinated the effort to raise the critical funds on Shantoy’s behalf.

According to Scott who has been doing the leg-work on Shantoy’s behalf, she collected the cheques from the Kingstonians who both requested anonymity between last week Friday and this Tuesday.

Both were among a large number of local and overseas donors who responded to Shantoy’s plight which was highlighted in the Observer West last Thursday. One woman from Edmonton, Canada will be coming to Jamaica on Sunday with a post card as well as some funds that she collected from her colleagues at work to assist.

“We’re glad the cost of the surgery has been covered, but we’re coming anyway with our specially made post card and other resources to assist,” she told The Observer West on Tuesday night, noting that her colleagues had been very touched by last week’s story.

In the meantime, Ward-Scott is pleading with the members of the public not to initiate any fund-raising efforts on Shantoy’s behalf, since the necessary funds have been raised.

“Of course there will always be need for funds to take care of the post surgery expenses. But what we are running from is a situation where people are capitalising on Shantoy’s situation to raise funds that can’t be accounted for. We want to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thanks to the public at large for the donations to the bank account as well as the other cheques that were written,” she said.

In the meantime, Shantoy and her mother are calming themselves in preparation for November 20 when a date will be set for the critical surgery.

“We are thankful, very thankful that things worked out this way. Thanks to everyone,” they said.