FOR her singular efforts in conceiving and building the Diabetic Research and Diabetic Centre at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Medical Women Association of Nigeria has formally recognised Professor Felicia Anuma.
The centre, commissioned in January 2021 by wife of former president, Hajia Aisha Buhari, boasts of a diabetic education room, a pharmacy, three-bedded daycare room, laboratory, orthotic and podiatric department, a library, six consulting rooms, well furnished seminar room and dietetic department in a two-block facility.
According to a statement signed by FCT president of the association, Dr Jennifer Chinwe Eze Boulhassane, Professor Anuma has, over the years, shown leadership, compassion and selflessness in the pursuit of her career, which she buried herself into, especially since losing her husband many years ago.
She described the recipient as “being at the forefront of changing the narrative of the scourge of diabetes in both the young and old.”
Narrating how the diabetes centre was conceived and born, Boulhassane said the professor, after conceiving the idea, got an architect to develop the context and kept it in her laptop for five years until she got an opportunity to seek funding.
On her 60th birthday, someone whom she had been successfully treated many years back told her to ask for a favour and Anuma, for the sake of humanity, brought out her laptop, showed him her long-term dream and told him of her vision and that birthed the centre.
“Through the years, Anuma had set up the Mark Anuma Foundation in memory of her late husband which has medical/surgical missions with more than 40,000 recipients, her academic brilliance, steadfastness in mentoring the young and advocacy in diabetes prevention in the young is unparalleled.
“She is an author of many books, like the ‘Christian Doctor’, ‘diabetes and lifestyle’, etc.
“To immortalise an enigma, to honour a woman who has given so much back than to herself and for the first time in the history of MWAN FCT, the association, on November 9, 2023, awarded the First Trailblazer award to her for the pursuit of excellence in improving medical education and enhancement of new technologies and academia per excellence,” Boulhassane said.
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