Anushka, Virat raise funds to help child procure world's most expensive medicine
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Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli turned good samaritans for a child suffering from spinal muscular atrophy (SPA), a rare genetic disorder. The patient, Ayaansh Gupta, needed a medicine named Zolgensma, which costs ₹16 crores, to beat the disease. Ayaansh's parents created a Twitter handle called AyaanshFightsSMA and thanked several stars, including Anushka and Virat on Monday. Sharing a picture of the couple, they tweeted, "@imVkohli& @AnushkaSharma - we always loved you as fans. But what you have done for Ayaansh and this campaign is beyond what we expected. Thanks for your generosity. You helped us win this match of life with a six! Will always be indebted for your help to #saveayaanshgupta."Other stars like KartikAaryan, Sara Ali Khan, Dia Mirza , Rajkummar Rao, and Arjun Kapoor also came forward to help the parents raise funds. Emraan Hashmi recorded a video to urge fans to help raise funds.
The news of Anushka and Virat's donation comes shortly after they donated ₹2 crores towards the Covid-19 relief funds. The couple initiated a fundraising campaign to support Covid-19 relief work in India. They partnered with fundraising platform Ketto for the initiative #InThisTogether and raised ₹11 crores from it. They had revealed the money raised will be donated to Act Grants, which will work towards providing oxygen, medical manpower, vaccination awareness and telemedicine facilities through the pandemic. After the fundraiser ended, Anushka took to Instagram and wrote, "Truly amazed and humbled by the spirit of solidarity that you all have shown. We are proud to announce that we have raised more than our initial target and it will go a long way to save lives. Thank you for your overwhelming support in helping the people of India. This wouldn’t be possible without you. Jai Hind."