Cancer survivors talk hope, exchange stories

MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 2: Moving moments galore, home remedies for hair loss caused by chemotherapy, talking to one's body through mind control ...

MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 2: Moving moments galore, home remedies for hair loss caused by chemotherapy, talking to one’s body through mind control methods, hope and a whole lot of humour spilt out into a room full of cancer survivors, those afflicted by the disease and members of the general public. Organised by NGO V Care, the evening at Crossword, Mahalakshmi, unfolded in the reading of letters from cancer survivors by columnist Shobha De while others stood up from the audience to share their stories and answer clutches of questions on battling the disease. The session, dubbed Glowing Courage, was held as a run-up to February 10, celebrated world-wide as Cancer Survivor’s Day.

“I collapsed at a showing of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge in Nasik five years ago and when I came to I was looking up into the face of an unattractive nurse…`arre,’ I asked `where’d Kajol go?’…,” laughs Ajit as chuckles erupt among the intent audience. Later, he was told that he had been diagnosed with a tumour in his brain and the fight, which he calls `a journey’, against the disease began. “I told myself – with my willpower, the doctor’s prowess and God’s grace, lets create a miracle,” he adds.

Intially shy, MBBS student Abhijit finally took the microphone to bring up the relevant issues of stigma and lack of awareness among the general public about cancer. “This may not be so rampant in bigger cities, but in smaller towns people have little idea about what the disease is. If you tell them you have cancer, they jump to the conclusion that you are about to die and begin to treat you like so,” he reveals. Diagnosed as having acute leukaemia and having relapsed once he was cured, Abhijit faced this problem while he was at his own village and says he had to tell them about the disease and its cures before they stopped “looking at me differently”.

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From stories of hope, the floor was dominated by a discussion on hair loss. While one survivor (complete with a shock of grey hair) made an impassioned plea for a paste made of jaswanti phool ke lep

, Ajit insisted that he talked his hair into staying on his head through chemotherapy. “The paste,” he instructs, “should be made of a few blossoms and two leaves and spread evenly on the head after a session of chemotherapy.” This, applied on his burning scalp by his wife every time he returned home resulted in his hair growing back, he says with great conviction.

Ajit, who never lost a strand of hari through chemotherapy, suggests the Silva Mind Control Method which uses a leap of the imagination to attain an `Alpha level of conciousness’. “From here I sent vast armies of soldier cells to attack the cancerous ones while I told various parts of my body that I loved them,” he narrates. Answering a question to how it’s done, Ajit reveals that he used to woo his hair every day with an emotive `you all are so nice, you make me look so handsome, please grow more and make me look better’.

Each and every one who spoke had words of praise for the support they received from their doctors and family members. “Whenever I felt low my wife used to say `you are a Leo’ – you cannot give up and we used to roar together like this,” says Ajit, snarling into the mike.

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Volunteers, Crossword employees, De and all those gathered to share in their stories were moved beyond their expectations. Says V-Care worker Vibha Hemrajani, “Today, as I listened to them all exhanging their experiences and advice, I felt truly fulfilled. This is the positivity and hope we wanted all those attended to give to each other”