Runcie C.W. Chidebe: The ambition that earned Heman recognition as TIME’s Kid of the Year for 2024
Runcie C.W. Chidebe shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Heman Bekele whipped up the most dangerous of what he called his ‘potions’ when he was just over 7 years old.
He’d been conducting his own science experiments for about three years by that point, mixing up whatever he could get his hands on at home and waiting to see if the resulting goo would turn into anything.
‘They were just dish soap, laundry detergent, and common household chemicals,’ he says today of the ingredients he’d use. ‘I would hide them under my bed and see what would happen if I left them overnight.’
That inquisitive way of thinking paid off.
Years later, the 3M company and Discovery Education selected Heman, a tenth grader, as the winner of its Young Scientist Challenge.
His prize: $25,000. His accomplishment: Inventing a soap that could one day treat and even prevent some forms of skin cancer.
A bar of soap, he reckoned, might be just the delivery system for such a lifesaving drug, not just because it was simple, but because it would be a lot more affordable than the $40,000 it typically costs for skin-cancer treatment.
‘I’m really passionate about skin cancer research,’ he says, ‘whether it’s my own research or what’s happening in the field. It’s absolutely incredible to think that one day my bar of soap will be able to make a direct impact on somebody else’s life. That’s the reason I started this all in the first place.’
It’s that ambition—to say nothing of that selflessness—that has earned Heman recognition as TIME’s Kid of the Year for 2024.
Photograph by Dina Litovsky for TIME.
Source: TIME.”
Source: Runcie C.W. Chidebe/LinkedIn
Runcie C.W. Chidebe serves as the Executive Director of Project PINK BLUE and holds a position as an External Academic Board Member for the Birmingham and Lewisham African and Caribbean Health Inequalities Review. With a background in psychology, research, and social entrepreneurship, Runcie is deeply committed to cancer control advocacy and global health consultancy.
He is dedicated to supporting underprivileged cancer patients, organizing free screenings for breast and cervical cancer in rural areas, fundraising for those in need, advocating for policy changes with governments, and providing specialized training for healthcare professionals in oncology and cancer awareness, including in local dialects.
