Doha’s Basheer Award for Dr V P Gangadharan

India’s eminent oncologist and cancer research scholar Dr V P Gangadharan will be awarded the Basheer Award 2015 instituted by the Qatar-based socio-cultural organisation Pravasi Doha. The award carries a cash prize of Rs50,000, a citation and a bronze relief work sculptured by famous artist Namboodiri. Pravasi Doha will also present Rs15,000 to a poor but outstanding student instituted in memory of the founding patron of the organisation, late Prof M N Vijayan, at the award ceremony to be held in Cochin in the last week of September.The Basheer Award was instituted in memory of legendry Malayalam writer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, who passed away in 1994. Pravasi Doha was established in 1995. This will be the 21st Basheer Award. Dr Gangadharan has been treating cancer patients over the last 35 years and his research papers on oncology have been published in international medical journals.“My mission is to extend the best possible treatment available in the world to tens of thousands poor patients as well. A doctor’s mission will not be complete unless he shows compassion towards his patients.... rich or poor,” says Dr Gangadharan. He is also the director of Alpha Pain and Palliative Clinics India, which help hundreds of needy patients in several places in Kerala state.The award committee will feature well-known writer and movie director M T Vasudevan Nair; former Doha journalist Babu Mather; Prof M A Rahman, a former teacher with MESA Indian school; and Doha residents C V Rappai, K K Sudhakaran and P Shemzudeen.