MANILA, Philippines — Jose Mari Chan, the face behind the Filipino Christmas, is lending his popular face to a new cause – brain health.
It is the Christmas season and every time it starts on September, people will always associate it with iconic balladeer. This season, his message of love still rings true but he added another appeal: he calls on people to save the brain.
The composer of Yuletide anthem “Christmas in Our Hearts” is the official ambassador of Let’s Save the Brain Foundation, a non-stock, non-profit organization founded in 2012 to help indigent patients of the Department of Neurosciences in University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH). The group addresses neurological cases that need immediate medical attention, like aneurysm, brain tumor, hydrocephalus, and others.
Chan was recently announced as the ambassador of the non-stock, non-profit organization founded in 2012 and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commision. The foundation extends support to indigent patients who are suffering from conditions of the nervous system such as stroke, epilepsy, meningitis, encephalitis, hydrocephalus, congenital malformations, brain tumors, spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. It provides the patients' needs such as medicines, surgical devices and needs, laboratory tests, procedures, brain imaging studies and medical equipment.
Latest Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed cerebrovascular diseases that include stroke and aneurysms were the second leading causes of death in the country, following heart diseases, with 74,262 deaths or 9.7% of the total cases for 2021 — a 15.3% jump from 64,381 cases or 10.5% of total deaths in 2020.
Let's Save the Brain Foundation, Inc. is an accredited foundation by the Department of Social Welfare and Development as a Resource Agency, Auxiliary SWDA (social welfare and development agency), and was granted a nation-wide solicitation permit by the same agency. It is also accredited by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification (PCNC) and is registered as a donee institution with the Bureau of Internal Revenue. More details on Let’s Save the Brain Foundation and its advocacies are found on its website.
“As ambassador of Let’s Save the Brain Foundation, this is my personal appeal to everyone: Christmas or not, let’s bring the love of Baby Jesus to those in need of access to neurological healthcare,” he was quoted as saying in a statement sent to Philstar.com.
In lending his face to this worthy cause, the prolific songwriter is giving us a new meaning of sharing and love for our neighbor, the kind Christmas famous for the world over.
“Please join us in this campaign. Together, we can help save lives. Together in love, let’s save the brain now,” Chan said.
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