Two Leicester City players have shown their support for the charity Healing Little Hearts during a training session.
Premier League footballers tend to be written about for either their performances on the field, their huge pay packets, or their antics off the field.
Only occasionally do we hear about footballers doing good, despite many being involved in some charitable activities.
Wilfred Ndidi and Ahmed, who both play for Leicester City, recently met the founders of Healing Little Hearts to show their support for the work they do.
Healing Little Hearts sends teams of specialists to different parts of the world to carry out life-saving heart surgery.
Charity Founder Dr Sanjay Nichani said, “There are more than a million children born across the world with heart defects every year 90 per cent of whom, will never have access to the life-saving heart surgery.
“As a result hundreds of thousands of babies and children die tragically and prematurely in the poorest countries of the world every year.”
Now the charity has sent a team to carry out up to 12 operations on babies and children in Nigeria for the first time.
Wilfred Ndidi said, “It’s wonderful and amazing to hear about things like this to give hope to the children of Nigeria. Of course Nigeria is important to me and I’m so happy for the kids.”
Ahmed Musa added, “It’s going to have a very good impact on the people back home so I want to say thank you to these people who are going over to help these new born babies who have had problems. It really makes a change to our brothers and sisters back at home and with the help of these doctors, things can change.”
This first trip to Nigeria is hopefully just the start, as Dr Nichani explains: “Thanks to the generosity of the great British public we are now beginning a collaboration with Nigeria the most populated nation in Africa with the long term aim of building heart centres in larger cities in Nigeria as there are none at moment.
“We look forward to our 1st trip to Nigeria and fervently hope that this is the beginning of a relationship that will give hope to the thousands of children in the country born with congenital heart disease.”
Healing Little Hearts initially helped patients in Mumbai who needed life-saving heart operations. It now treats patients in a number of different countries. Since the charity began in 2007, 1133 children have benefited from life-saving surgery. Click here to find out more.