A look at the challenges faced by cancer patients

At first Sharada Yadav declines to speak to us Between running her own beauty parlour and taking care of her family the 32yearold Andheri resident has no time to spare for anyone But it is her third ndash and biggest ndash responsibility that really occupies her days and her mind She is currently playing caretaker to her 29yearold sister and cancer patient Sakshi who is battling for her life at a Bandrabased hospiceCancer survivors opine that society should change its attitude towards them IllustrationAmit BandreSakshi was diagnosed with ovarian cancer more than three years ago When doctors informed her that her ovaries will have to be removed she flatly refused to undergo the surgery A young man who encouraged her decison and promised marriage is no longer in the pictureTalking about it makes Sharadarsquos voice quiver ldquoSakshi used to ask what is the point of living if you canrsquot have children But she deeply regrets her decision todayrdquo she saysSchool said cancer is contagiousAccording to a recent newspaper report which cited statistics by the World Health Organisationrsquos International Agency for Research on Cancer India had 18 million people living with cancer within five years of diagnosis in 2012 Roughly a million new cases were recorded that year and about 683000 deaths due to cancer were registered In the report doctors also cautioned that several cases either went undetected or underdiagnosedTwentythree year old Aditi Mehra is a case in point The daughter of a retired mill worker and a domestic help Mehra found a lump below her left ear in 2008 The first doctor she met dismissed it as normal before removing it When the lump reappeared the neighbourhood nursing home gave Mehra three monthsrsquo worth of medicines for tuberculosis This predictably worsened her condition ldquoMy knees starting paining very badly and I couldnrsquot even go to the toilet But the doctors said it was normalrdquo recalls Mehra Much later a biopsy report diagnosed her with blood cancer Mehra was still a teenagerThe full impact of the news hit her only at the Parelbased TATA Memorial Hospital where she was gently informed that one of the effects of chemotherapy was hair loss ldquoI cried and kept thinking lsquoHow am I going to go outrsquo I bought a wig from a shop in Dadar but I found the experience so strange I had to wear it even at home as we had a lot of guests It was so heavy and hot rdquo Today after having successfully beaten cancer Mehra wants to highlight the importance of awareness and timely treatment ldquoSociety is quick to write a cancer patientrsquos obituary Logon ko apni soch badalni chahiye people should change their ideasrdquo she saysPeoplersquos lsquosochrsquo was something that bothered Palgharbased Smita Sharma every time she was denied admission to a school on the grounds that lsquocancer is contagiousrsquo or people taunted her about her baldness by calling her lsquotaklirsquo Sharma was 10 when she was diagnosed with blood cancer ldquoI was a good student but schools didnrsquot accept me and asked me how am I going to sit with other kids with my bald head If you donrsquot have the right kind of support cancer survivorsrsquo lives just screech to a halt I completely stopped going out and even contemplated suiciderdquo says SharmaToday however thanks to the efforts of organisation Yeshwant Vidyapeeth the 28yearold is a BCom student at a college in Palghar and hopes to help cancer patients herself somedayAwareness is keyFor 24yearold Bandra resident Harsh Khetan who was diagnosed with blood cancer four years ago one of the first casualties of the disease was his love life ldquoGirls run for the door when you say you are a cancer survivorrdquo says Khetan who works at advertising agency ldquoIt is just so hard to have a normal dating liferdquoFor some being married was no consolation either Khargharbased Rakhi Mishra was abandoned by her husband of five years while undergoing treatment for cancer ldquoHe dumped me at my motherrsquos house and refused to pay for treatment calling me handicappedrdquo said Mishra who was diagnosed with bone cancer in her right leg Thanks to a hospitality course organised by a city NGO the spunky 28yearold restaurant cook today earns a living by standing on her feet for almost 6 hoursDoctors unanimously agree that nothing should stop cancer survivors from living a life of their choice Kochibased DrVPGangadharan one of the leading oncologists in the country explains that cancer survivors should be called lsquocancer winnersrsquo as they are ldquonot just survivingrdquo ldquoIf they are healthy for five years after treatment their chance of being diagnosed with cancer again is as good as anyone elsersquos They will have absolutely no issues in leading a normal liferdquo he emphasises A doctor from the Hematolymphoid unit of TATA hospital agrees ldquoWith the help and care of support groups and counselors there is nothing that stops them from moving ahead in liferdquo she points outNames have been changed on request