The Medical Director of Sonotech Medical and Diagnostic Centre, Dr. Grace Buckman, who was Afua Asantewaa’s official doctor for her Guinness World Records’ longest singing marathon attempt, has explained the routine they took Afua through for the event.
According to Dr. Buckman, her team took Afua through a lot of medical checks before she started the sing-a-thon.
She noted that there were medical practitioners from various fields who came on baord to offer support to her.
Recounting her experience to Joy FM‘s entertainment journalist Kwame Dadzie on Showbiz A-Z, the doctor said even though Afua wanted to quit on the second day, she got encouraged and revitalised to continue.
She noted that the original plan was for her to end the programme on Thursday, December 28, 2023 but Afua had suggested she wanted to extend it to Sunday, 31st December, 2023.
“The original pan wasn’t for end on yesterday [Friday December 29, 2023] like we did, it was supposed to be the day before [Thursday] so we actually had a meeting with the family, the main players and everything and we had a beautiful exit plan.
But then in the morning when we were supposed to wrap up, we didn’t know where the energy came from. Now she had a lot of energy and started going on again with the singing and all, so we said let’s allow her for some hours again and see how it goes. But later in the evening again we realised a dip. A lot of fatique had set in; not just physically but mentally as well, so you realised there were dead times when she wasn’t really singing so we wanted to stop at that point but during that time she even said she even wanted to end on Sunday,” she told the host Kwame Dadzie.
She further noted that they had to come to an agreement with Afua and explain to her on why she needed to end the singing marathon earlier than she wanted.
Dr. Buckman also explained that there was a lot of toll on Afua’s body and that the medical team was not only concerned about what was happening at the moment but the aftermath. They were scared Afua could have health issues after the event.
A team of 26 health practitioners helped Afua on this project.
Afua Asantewaa, an event organiser, concluded her Guinness World Record attempt to break the record for the longest individual singing marathon at 7:00am on Friday, December 29, 2023.
She endured a five-day singing marathon that commenced at midnight at 12:00 am on Sunday, December 24, 2023, to surpass the 105 hours record set by a Indian artiste Sunil Waghmare in 2012.
At the time of ending her record attempt on Friday morning, she had sung for five days, six hours, and 55 minutes.
While addressing the public after her remarkable feat, Afua Asantewaa expressed gratitude to everyone who supported her, including those who showed up at the Akwaaba Village and those who could not.
“At a point, I kept asking which day it was, and I finally got to know that today is Friday. On behalf of my family, team, volunteers, the media, and Ghana Tourism Authority, I would like to say thank you to everyone who participated in this attempt; it has been a smooth journey and a very successful one,” she noted.
Later, during an after-party that held to celebrate her win at the Akwaaba Village, she was named a Tourism Ambassador by the Ghana Tourism Authority.
In the meantime, Afua would have to wait for the results from the Guinness World Records after submitting the entire work to them for assessment.
Source: myjoyonline.com
