Sajjad Daultana is currently in hospital in Pakistan

THE loving family of a market stallholder and tenants’ champion are urgently raising funds to bring him home after he had a stroke at a family wedding in Pakistan.

Sajjad Daultana – who lives in St John’s Wood and runs the Desi market stall in Swiss Cottage market – is on a ventilator in hospital after collapsing on February 8.

The 57-year-old had been initially placed in palliative care but since being transferred to a different hospital he is now showing signs of recovery. But his emergency treatment is costing hundred of pounds a day and the family needs financial help.

His three young daughters told the Extra how their dad had encouraged them to break through cultural barriers blocking women from education.

Halima said: “He would always be there for us. He had such perseverance to do so much for us educationally. Girls just don’t get education in our country. I never felt second to a boy or anything. We wanted to do well for ourselves.

“He would spend all his time, saying things like ‘don’t go on TikTok, why don’t you study?’, as encouragement, not forcing us.”

Sajjad Daultana has taken on many different work roles over the years, running a shop, working in schools and most recently in the pharmacy at UCH.

Sajjad Daultana, fourth from left, contributed to the script for a community play at Hampstead Theatre

Halima said: “I wanted to talk about how he became a pharmacy assistant. I am training to become a pharmacist. To become closer to me, he became a pharmacy assistant at UCH, he just wanted to understand what my role would be.”

He is well known on the Alexandra and Ainsworth estate where he lived and brought up his family.

He volunteered at the youth centre and has catered all the tenants’ hall meetings with home-cooked samosas.

“Whoever uses the TRA they reach out for my dad, whatever the event was,” said daughter Harja. “You know like Guy Fawkes, the Queen’s birthday, whatever it is.

“He gave out Christmas hampers. And at Hampstead Theatre, a section of his script was chosen for a community play. He was one of the scriptwriters. He would always encourage and push us. When we were little he would always take us to the library, museums and on lots of trips. Badminton, cricket, he took us to Lord’s.

“Kew Gardens – we have been there – like four times.”

The family said he loves to try new things, remembering him sitting back to relax with a portion of his favourite raspberry pie, while reading a book about coding or watching classic films.

After contracting pneumonia and sepsis, he is now able to move his head from side-to-side in acknowledgement but cannot yet speak.

One son and his wife are out in Pakistan liaising with a complex health service very unlike our own where charges are billed down to the tissues, medication and oxygen used in the hospital.
Halima said she had been using student loan money to pay bills but that this was running out.

A fundraising page has been set up by the Daultana family.

It says: “We have almost exhausted our finances. Any support to pay for his treatment and then bring him home for urgent specialist care would mean the world to us.”

It is hoped he will become stable enough for a medical transfer back from Lahore to London.

Sara Bell, secretary of the estate’s TRA, tenants’ and residents’ association, described him as a “much-loved member of our community” and “a pillar of the community”.

• Details of fundraiser: www.gofundme.com/f/medical-transport-to-bring-our-father-back-home-to-the-uk