A Cancer Survivor’s 32-Year Journey of ‘Giving Back’ Through Aid, Emotional Support & Prostheses |
Mumbai-based Renuka Advani (now 61) was 47 years old when she was diagnosed with cancer. Like many patients who receive this diagnosis, she was devastated.
“I remember breaking down during one of the treatment sessions,” she shares. Alone in the room — Renuka’s husband and mother, who often accompanied her to the hospital, were waiting outside — Renuka was surprised when a stranger walked in and offered to sit with her.
“I didn’t know her [the stranger], but she held my hand and sat with me while I cried. I confided in her that I thought I was going to die, and she calmed me down,” Renuka shares.
“When I recovered, my daughter told me about wanting to do something to ‘give back’. That’s when I remembered the woman who had sat with me and told my daughter that we should reach out to the organisation she was from — V Care Foundation; we connected with Vandana Gupta, the Founder and Chairperson, and that’s how Squash A Mile shaped up,” Renuka says, adding that the initiative by her children Rhea and Rohan uses sports as a medium to support patient communities undergoing active cancer treatment, including radiation, surgery, chemotherapy, or supportive care.
For the last 14 years, Squash A Mile conducted at the Bombay Gymkhana has raised funds that are channelled towards helping the patients associated with V Care Foundation. Now that Renuka looks back at how it started, she sees it as a ripple effect that began with a small act of kindness — with a stranger choosing to be there for her in a moment of distress.
“This is exactly the intention with which I started V Care Foundation 32 years ago,” Vandana shares. When she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma stage 3 (a cancer of the lymphatic system) in 1993, she recalls not knowing much about the diagnosis. “My husband and I looked up the term in a medical encyclopedia; that’s how we knew it was cancer,” she shares.
Through the treatment process, Vandana recalls feeling lost. She explains, “Doctors often do not have the time to sit with the patient and explain. All the booklets I was given highlighted side effects, which scared me about the process. I almost backed out.”
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