Singer Rihanna donates $1.75M to Barbados hospital

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LOS ANGELES, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Pop star Rihanna confirms she has donated $1.75 million to help modernize a hospital in her home country of Barbados in honor of her late grandmother.

"This was my way of giving back to Barbados, in a form of philanthropy, by assisting the [Bridgetown's Queen Elizabeth Hospital] in its continued modernization program," Rihanna said in a statement 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 hospital has renamed its cancer treatment center Clara Braithwaite Centre for Oncology and Nuclear Medicine after Rihanna's grandmother, who died last summer, UsMagazine.com reported.