Hopebay College Old Boys Solicit Financial Help to Save Member

Hopebay College Old Boys Solicit Financial Help to Save Member

In a bid to save the life of one of their own, the Hopebay College Old Boys Association, 1998 set, is making efforts to raise funds for kidney transplant of Oluseun Adebayo Ojo, who is bedridden and presently battling for his life under intensive care unit at Dialyzer Specialist Medical Centre, Mafoluku, Oshodi- Lagos due to complete renal failure. The group spoke with Chris Asika on their quest to save him

Ojo in his sick bed
At first contact with Oluseun Adebayo Ojo (fondly called Bayo), an amiable young man full of energy and vigor, one won’t fail to notice his jovial, hilarious, easy going life style, with his heavily built physical attributes.
However, he is currently battling with his life at Dialyzer Specialist Medical Centre, Mafoluku, Oshodi suffering from complete renal failure.

In a bid to restore his health and bring back his usual lively disposition, members of the Hopebay College Old Boys Association (HBC) 1998 set have implored on well-meaning Nigerians to help them save the life of their member and friend, who is in urgent need of kidney transplant.

Bayo, 39, lost his mother (who was the only surviving parent) two years ago and not long after that he was diagnosed with kidney failure. He has been undergoing dialysis for a year now but the doctors say he needs a transplant urgently as the condition is getting worse and dialysis is not helping any more.

The members of the group have been contributing N5, 000 or more each and also opened a GoFundMe account in Bayo’s name especially for their members that live outside the country. They also opened pages with his pictures on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram; even his neighbours in FESTAC have been contributing. From all these activities, they have been able to raise about N4 million, but the funds has also been used to run dialysis like two to three times weekly with blood transfusion par session. That means about N200, 000 is spent every week to keep him alive.

They are soliciting assistance to save Bayo from this life threatening situation which requires at least N10 million. Donations can be deposited to this account:

Bank Name: Guaranty Trust Bank
Account Name: Oluseun Adebayo Ojo
Account Number: 0013129872

Interested donors living abroad are not left out, as they can use the GoFundMe account created on Bayo’s behalf following the link https://www.gofundme.com/mzw55ymedical.

Speaking with THISDAY, one of the old boy, who doubles as the Secretary of the committee for Bayo’s medical aid, Mr. Joseph Okoli, a Brazil trained business administrator, recounts the efforts they have made so far to keep Bayo alive pending the transplant.

“Bayo is my childhood friend, I have known him since I was eight years old; we attended Hope Bay Primary and Secondary school together. I only left the shores of Nigeria to Brazil and reconnected back to him when I came back. I got to know of his illness after his mum died around 2017. It was in October, November of that year that he opened up to me what he was actually going through.

“When I heard about it, I knew it was serious because the Bayo that I knew was big in body size, he was emaciated and he said he was taking more of water and eating less food because most times he doesn’t have appetite. He has been undergoing dialyses for some time now to help him remove the excess urine from his body.”

Okoli added: “When I heard about it, I decided to stick to my Hopebay group student and we started to gather help for him. He has got complete renal failure and he needs an urgent kidney transplant. He broke down completely in February 2019 during a child dedication of a mutual friend that we attended together (then he was still able to walk), he earlier said he could not make it for the occasion because he wasn’t feeling too strong, but he had to come so as to pay his respect.

“About 10 minutes after he got there (it was a Sunday), he started shivering. My wife noticed him and called my attention, when we met him, he said he wasn’t feeling too good so we hurriedly put him in a vehicle that will take him home. When he got home he slept for a long time and the next day he said he was going for dialysis. He actually went for dialysis where they said he needed a pint of blood and since that day, that was where everything started and became worst till date.

“We came to THISDAY Newspapers to enable us to reach good Nigerians so as to ensure that Bayo goes for the kidney transplant. He is actually bedridden and we are pleading with Nigerians to come to our aid, hand in hand everybody can come together to save him,” he said.

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