The two hospitals that will benefit from this year’s Sigma Corporate Run have thanked Sagicor for staging the event, saying that the more than $46 million raised will help in the provision of health services, especially during the current novel coronavirus pandemic.

“We know that it could not have been easy to raise millions of dollars during a pandemic, but Sagicor showed great commitment and dedication to the cause, which is a core part of why Sigma Run exists — to help to strengthen the health sector in our country,” North-East Regional Health Authority (NERHA) Director Fabia Lamm said in a statement yesterday.

The health sector, Lamm said, “needs all the help it can get now”, especially because it is “at the forefront of the pandemic we are facing, and Sagicor continues to show up, despite the challenges”.

After the completion of the fund-raising run on Sunday, Sagicor announced that it had raised $42 million. However, yesterday the company said it had received additional donations of just over $4 million, bringing the total to $46.6 million.

Noting that the two hospitals — Annotto Bay and Port Antonio — are in the north-east region, Lamm said the region is tremendously grateful to Sagicor Group “as we know the funds raised will go a far way in procuring much-needed and critical medical equipment to further bolster the efforts of the hard-working staff at both hospitals”.

She described Sagicor as “a model corporate citizen” and noted that the company has donated more than $500 million to several charities through the Sigma Run in the past 23 years.

“So many hospitals and other child-related institutions have benefited from the organisation’s corporate social responsibility initiative and they should be lauded,” Lamm said.

“NERHA congratulates and commends the organising and planning committee of this year’s event for having pulled off such an amazing feat during a truly difficult and challenging time and believe the successful execution should be used as a best practice as we all continue adjust within this new paradigm shift,” Lamm said.

“On behalf of the entire NERHA, I say ‘Thank you, and well done, Sagicor, for continuing to serve this country and for always giving back and helping to improve the lives of so many Jamaicans’,” she added.

The run had a third beneficiary — a one-year educational programme, dubbed ‘Get Back on Track’, to be developed to assist students who have been impacted by the disruptions in schools caused by the pandemic.