Page 78 - Secondary School BEATS

Through the eyes of a Cancer Survivor...
ms. rajni arora &
dr. ishita gandhi
Q: Could you talk us through the initial
stages of joining CanSupport? Were there
any challenges that you faced while joining
an organization with such a large outreach?
A: [Ms. Arora] When I joined, back in 2003, I knew
of CanSupport but hadn’t given much thought
before that. It was my own cancer that became
a catalyst for me to change the course of my life,
I was working at an advertising agency. I didn’t
really have any problems joining, because it was
a small group then. It was a handful of volunteers
and a handful of paid staff, both six-odd.
CanSupport was founded in 1996, but it officially
began work in 1997, and I joined 6 years after
that. I got to watch the organization grow from
just 3 teams into a fully-fledged organization.
Come 2006, it became more organized,
with a more streamlined business model.
Even now, there is still a strong camaraderie
between the staff and the volunteers.
[Dr. Gandhi] I’m a more recent arrival to the
organization, I joined just 4 years ago. I joined
the palliative care team. In 2018, we were 32 odd
teams, only in Delhi NCR, and we are expanding
gradually to neighboring areas. Raising general
awareness of Palliative Care, which is a new thing
in India is an extremely important thing. Apart
from that, I wouldn’t say it’s been challenging,
in fact, it’s been very rewarding. What I do is
a very fulfilling job and all the problems melt
away as you see the pain in the patient leave,
the joy on the faces of the patient’s family. I
must applaud the teams, who worked even
through the peak of COVID, supporting the
members who were at loss, who couldn’t go
to any hospitals, and who were not able to visit
patients. But the teams continued to support
them through the phone, and visited them to
comfort them, even if it was in COVID Suits.
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but the spiritual aspects of the symptoms
Q: A question for Ms. Arora, it must have
been shocking to discover that you had
cancer. Can you give us some insight into
how you went from shock to determination
after your diagnosis, and if you could speak
to a younger version of yourself who had
just been diagnosed, what would you say?
A: [Ms. Arora] I speak to younger versions every
day; handhold cancer patients through their
journey. As for my diagnosis, I wouldn’t say
that I was in shock initially. I wasn’t really in
denial, either. I had to accept it, look it in the
eye, and move on. If I hadn’t looked it in the eye,
I wouldn’t have been able to fight it. I was 14
years old, and I had accidentally found it myself,
and that’s the importance of early detection.
That’s the importance of being in touch with
your own body. More than myself, my family
was in shock, because my mother had passed
just a few years before that, and my sisters were
devastated. There were all kinds of reactions
from the rest of my family. When I lost my hair,
I took it in my stride, I tried new treatments, I
shaved my head, and I tried to break through
the stigma that having cancer can carry.
Q: A question for Dr. Gandhi, what inspired
you to become a Palliative Care Physician?
A: [Dr. Gandhi] What inspired me? Honestly, it
was luck. I stumbled upon this profession, but it
became my calling. One thing that stuck with
me is that we always try to treat a disease, but we
never see beyond that disease. We never treat
the person. What is the person suffering from?
One may want to treat a fever, but I wished to
treat Person A with the fever. When I found
this field, I found that the essence of palliative
medicine lay in holistic medicine. When I say,
“Holistic Medicine” I refer to not just the physical
aspects, but the emotional, the psychological,
and the spiritual aspects of the symptoms
as well, and that connected with me. That is
something I’ve always wanted to do, and when I
got the opportunity to work in the field, I took it.
Q: It’s very intense work, working within this
field. How do you maintain your own well-
being amidst your work at CanSupport?
A: [Dr Gandhi] As I said, it’s very fulfilling. When
you see a person in pain, and you see the
distress of that person and everyone around
them, you try to elevate that pain. Most of the
time, half the pain goes by just sitting and
listening to the patient explaining the extent
of their pain. And by the end of the one hour
I spend with the patient and I ask the patient
how they’re feeling now and they say “Ab
thoda theek lag raha hai.”, I also feel happiness.
That is more than enough to take care of our
mental health. Of course, we also have a lot of
other strategies. I like to read fantasy novels
whenever I feel overwhelmed with my work.
[Ms. Arora] We also have meetings and
sessions with the workers and volunteers to
raise our spirits. They’re quite therapeutic.
Q: Ms. Arora spoke about breaking the
stigma around cancer. Do you think that
there are any misconceptions that the
general public may have about cancer?
A: [Both] Oh, yes, plenty!
Ms. Arora [Ms. Arora] And we’ll be speaking
about those in our sessions.
Q. You mentioned student volunteers
helping your cause. Are there any ways that
students can engage with CanSupport?
A: [Ms. Arora] Yes, in fact, you could do bake
Ms. Gandhi sales, pledges, raise awareness, you could act
as ambassadors to CanSupport in your families
and communities… and when you have events
like PTAs, you could man a stall, and raise funds
for CanSupport or similar initiatives. You could
also come to the daycare and support the
children there with activities, and of course, the
CanSupport Walk. You could register children
for the Walk on February 19th and encourage
people around you and in your communities
to join us to support those with cancer.
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