Sunbird Search for a Star cheers patients

Prior to the first round of the Sunbird Search for a Star talent search competition, contestants for the competition, led by sponsors Sunbird, cheered under-five cancer patients and guardians at the paediatric oncology ward at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre.

The contestants shared lunch with the patients and serenaded them with a cover performance of Hosanna, originally performed by international gospel group Hillsong.

The lyrics of the song were on point as they have the power to sooth a soul of troubled people such as those suffering from diseases such as cancer.

Heal my heart and make it clean/Open up my eyes to the things unseen/Show me how to love like you have loved, sang the contestants.

One of the patients’ guardians at the ward Fatima Twaliki expressed gratitude over the gesture by Sunbird Search for a Star, saying it has helped them relax.

“I have been here since August 5 and being in a hospital sometimes you just need someone to talk to or someone to just show you he cares and Sunbird just did that,” said Twaliki, who is guardian to her nine-year-old child.

In an interview, Sunbird Tourism Limited public relations officer Akosa Mphepo said the hotel chain is active in corporate social responsibility and decided to involve the contestants of the competition to pass on the spirit of giving back.

“Some of these patients have stayed in the hospital for quite long and they need to be cheered up. So we want to teach these contestants that giving back is not a matter of having more, but giving what you have, it doesn’t matter if it is a smile, a prayer or just being there,” said Mphepo.

Chief nursing officer at the ward Linly Chewere said the gesture by Sunbird should not be taken lightly, but emulated by other organisations.

“The patients and guardians are bored sometimes looking at the same faces all the time and the coming in of these contestants to cheer them up was a good idea because they start to realise that the outside world still cares for them,” said Chewere.

The competition is expected to kick-start tomorrow evening at Sunbird Mount Soche with 16 contestants battling it out for the grand prize of K500 000 (US$1 214).