In the true spirit of the giving season, Rihanna donated $1.75 million dollars to a Barbados Hospital on behalf of her grandmother, who passed away earlier this year. The radiotherapy department at Queen Elizabeth Hospital will soon be renamed after Clara Braithwaite, or as Rihanna knew her, Gran Gran Dolly. Rihanna’s donation helped the hospital pay for new equipment for the Clara Braithwaite Centre for Oncology and Nuclear Medicine.
Braithwaite succumbed to cancer in a New York hospital on June 30. Rihanna visited her grandmother frequently during the final days. “Goodbye #grangranDOLLY get your beauty rest until I see you,” she tweeted in mourning.
On Saturday she visited Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown with her mother Monica Fenty, and Dolly’s husband Lionel. “This was my way of giving back to Barbados, in a form of philanthropy, by assisting the QEH in its continued modernization program,” Rihanna said in a statement sent to E! News. “I believe that this will have a huge impact on the people of Barbados. This was all done to save lives or at least extend them.”
The singer’s return to her native Barbados has also been a much earned opportunity to relax, coming off the release of her album Unapologetic and her 777 tour in November. Rihanna has taken to Instagram in her time off, posting photos of herself relaxing in her island villa. The 24-year-old star arrived back in Barbados on Tuesday of last week.
