Charles plays important role in launch of oxygen appeal

PRINCE CHARLES has personally intervened to set up a fund to supply oxygen to Covid patients in India as the British Indian diaspora called for international support to address the crisis.

The Prince of Wales, founder of the British Asian Trust, encouraged the foundation to set up the “Oxygen for India” appeal which has raised more than £1.5 million since Monday.

“He was on the phone over the weekend inspiring us and encouraging us to launch an appeal to see how we can help. I think he was one of our first donors,” said Manoj Badale, chairman of the British Asian Trust.

More than 10,000 people have donated to the appeal as India scrambles to secure medicine and provide hospital beds. Covid cases have reached a record 386,582 per day.

Official reports put the country’s death toll at 200,000, but medical experts estimate it could be up to 10 times higher.

British Indians are watching helplessly as hospitals and crematoria in the country are overrun. Dr Chandrika Roysam, 61, a retired NHS doctor, says she is “living from phone call to phone call” to find out how her 82-year-old mother is faring in Bangalore.

“I made the incredibly difficult decision of not going, because my first instinct was to fly out. People said I would be foolish and would be creating a whole new set of problems by coming there, rather than just allowing her to slowly get better.”

She added: “This has been the hardest thing for me – it’s eaten me up here for the last two weeks. All I can do is wait and see what happens to the situation day by day.”

Dr Lalit Shekhar, a consultant anaesthetist from Newcastle, says his family desperately tried to go to India to see his father-in-law before he died of Covid three days ago. He said: “It is mayhem out there – it is very, very bad. Everybody is grieving alone and that is one of the worst things – you are on completely on your own.”