Dubai: A gentle cat lover who has spent all his money rescuing, spaying, feeding and getting medical help for injured cats for the three decades, is going blind after he developed an eye disease and has no money for medical expenses.
Edward Cordahi, popularly known as Uncle Eddy in the feline lovers’ circles, lives in a single room in Ajman with 40 cats he has rescued. A Lebanese expatriate, he came to the UAE 30 years ago and has worked in different organisations. His current employer has been kind enough to make him a shareholder in a Jebel Ali based-company and he earns a salary of Dh5,100, barely enough to cover the expenses.
Six years ago, Cordahi developed trouble in his left eye. “I was talking to someone and all of a sudden it felt like a veil was drawn over it, I could not see,” he recalls. Diagnosed with Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), he was treated with some injections at the Dubai Hospital which helped restore 70 per cent of his vision in that eye. But a few months ago, his right eye began giving him trouble and his tests show he has cataract and the beginning of ADM in his right eye too for which he has been advised immediate surgery.
His friends emailed his reports to eye surgeons in Chennai and Bengaluru and they sent him an estimate of around Dh20,000 to treat both the eyes. Adding air tickets, hotel, visa, medicines and recuperative expenses, he would require Dh50,000.
“I manage my life as I can see well during the day and can drive my car. In the night I cannot see beyond 40 metres and stay put at my home not even going out to feed stray cats which I did earlier,” said Cordahi.
His eyes light up as he talks animatedly about the felines and he has a name for each one. He broke down talking about Sandy who died when someone threw her from a building. He talks about Angela, Tim, Pretty and many others as though he was discussing his own kids. “If people come forward to help me with food or medicines for cats, I welcome it, but I have never asked from anyone,” said the self-effacing man.
Every morning, he rises early to clear out the cat litter, sweeps his home, feed the cats, take the sick ones to the clinic, and then drive down to his Jebel Ali office. No matter what the errand, Uncle Eddy is behind his wheels driving during out on his feline rescue mission.
It is not just cats but Cordahi supported the family of a colleague for 20 years. “Salim Mohammad was a mechanic in the previous company I worked in and he had a severe lung infection where he had lost the use of one lobe and had only half of the other lobe functioning. He had three children in Karachi. Somehow I bonded with him and decided to help him out at all costs.”
So Cordahi adopted Mohammad, got his three kids and wife from Karachi, put them through school, moved them into his own apartment in Satwa while he moved to Ajman. “For years I was paying bills for two homes as I had adopted Salim’s family as my own. Sadly, Salim died seven years ago and his wife and grown up children returned to Pakistan. I am happy I was able to see them through school and they still write loving mails to me,” said Cordahi sharing photographs and messages from Mohammad’s family. He has no regrets he spent all his savings on them, but is at his wit’s end about how to manage his health and his cats now.
Time is running out for Cordahi. His treatment could be carried out by an eye surgeon in the UAE but his health card barely covers any of this expenses and he fears the surgery would cost exorbitant sums. He is pinning all his hopes on the surgeons in a Chennai or Bengaluru-based hospitals who have responded to him. The surgery is his only hope for the renewal of his driving licence which will come up later this year. “I will be confined to my home without my car. I need this surgery to continue doing my work in rescuing sick and injured cats,” explained Cordahi.
