World Cancer Day and a true champion – Santosh

 World Cancer Day and a true champion – Santosh

The HOPE project of Mumbai Smiles addresses the Financial, Psycho-social, Emotional, Nutritional and Diagnostic needs of underprivileged children with Cancer, aged 0 to 18 years from all over India, and admitted at Holy Spirit Hospital, Andheri (East), Mumbai. Affordability, accessibility and utilization of the health facilities are directly proportional to the socio-economic status of the family. Children with cancer need psychological support. Most of these cancers are curable. However, many children lose their lives due to lack of comprehensive medical care. The project envisages giving importance to this comprehensive care. So far HOPE has supported 62 children with Cancer. In order to encourage these children, ‘Champion of the Month’ event is celebrated when they successfully complete chemotherapy and radiotherapy cycles.

Santosh is this month’s Champion. He and his family members live far away from Mumbai in a tribal area. None of them had visited Mumbai before and hence were not aware of the Cancer and its treatment. In fact, the celebration coincided with the “World Cancer Day” that is observed on 4th February every year. World Cancer Day is a unique opportunity to raise awareness at individual, community and governmental level, and to harness and mobilize solutions for cancer and catalyze positive change. This year’s theme is: “Not beyond us.”

During Champion of the month celebration, gifts, educational material and nutritional supplements were distributed among children with cancer at Holy Spirit Hospital. Santosh’ father, extremely happy seeing his healthy son after treatment, gave the following feedback:  “We had never visited Mumbai before and hence, didn’t know anything about the cancer and its treatment. If Supriya had not been there, we would have been lost. My son is sitting healthy in front of me because of Supriya’s dedication and involvement with us. She helped us at the hospital to fill forms and understand the treatment.”

We hope to continue to create impact in the lives of our HOPE beneficiaries and see them prosper in their lives.