South Florida-based Smiley’s Voice Foundation, founded by Jamaican Carol Hylton, recently donated funds to University Hospital of the West Indies’ (UHWI) Stroke Unit.

The money was raised through the foundation’s annual Black, Red and White fund-raising gala held last November at the Doubletree By Hilton hotel in Fort Lauderdale.

Hylton, a registered nurse who is from Portland, told the Jamaica Observer that the event met most of its objectives.

“We would have liked to raise more funds but this is an ongoing initiative. The foundation will be donating some of the proceeds to support stroke care at the UHWI. Smiley’s Voice Foundation is committed to supporting the stroke care at the UHWI and is garnering support for this initiative,” she said.

“Dr [Kevin] Wade was able to address the attendees at the gala and inform them of the goal of the UHWI stroke programme, which is to have a national roll-out to improve the standard of care for stroke patients in Jamaica,” Hylton added.

Wade, a consultant neurosurgeon and neurovascular specialist, told the Observer that donations from Diaspora groups have helped develop an efficient stroke unit at the hospital.

Last July, Hylton and Dr Rosemarie Lewis, a key member of Jamaica’s South Florida Diaspora, brought Dr Norman Ajiboye, head of the neurological department at Hollywood Memorial Hospital, to Jamaica where he performed five “critical surgeries” at UHWI.

“Besides raising the quality and standard of care locally, one of the primary tenets of our work in Jamaica is to make health care-accessible for all patients. One of the major barriers to access is the high cost of medical supplies, devices, and disposables for neurovascular treatment. This, together with providing timely health care, has posed a major challenge for health-care providers,” Dr Wade explained.

“The work of the Diaspora group, led by Carol Hylton and Dr Rosemarie Lewis, has been tremendous and invaluable to patients here in Jamaica [who are] most in need,” Dr Wade added.

In 2022, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton disclosed that as many as 2,400 Jamaicans die from “cerebrovascular accidents”. Hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease are leading causes of strokes.

Hylton started Smiley’s Voice Foundation shortly after her son, Michael “DJ Smiley” Hylton, died from a stroke at age 29. He was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect called tetralogy of Fallot at birth and had corrective surgery when he was two-and-a-half years old.

The 11th annual Black, White and Red fund-raising gala was attended by more than 210 people, including Ajiboye; Lewis; Dr Brandon Davis, neurointerventional surgeon from the Memorial Neuroscience Institute; and other members of the Memorial Healthcare System.