Purse strings open for 7-yr-old city boy down with cancer, family needs Rs 50 lakh more

Such small and big gestures have kept the Kolurs going since last December when, after a routine blood test, they learnt that Piyush, who had managed to successfully battle Acute Lymphoblast Leukaemia when he was four, had had a relapse.

Since Piyush had no sibling, the bone marrow transplantation—his only chance—could not be performed in India which has no registry of such donors.

“ We’ll have to try the US, France or Singapore where they can do a Matched Unrelated Donors (MUD) transplant. Such a surgery will cost Rs 1.26 crores. The sum is clearly beyond our means and the operation has to be done as soon as possible,” says Kolur who is working with Honeywell. Twenty days ago, he began his appeal for funds through leaflets, friends and the internet.

A modest Rs 10 from a domestic help, Rs 4 lakh from a corporate head honcho, Rs 7,000 from Piyush’s classmates and teachers from DAV School and individuals— there were generous donations from the city, country and even abroad. The Kolurs have so far collected Rs 72 lakh through donations and raised Rs 30 lakh by selling their family property.

“I can’t believe this is happening to us. He had recovered so well and was leading a normal childhood for the past three years,” says mother Swati, a mechanical engineer, who gave up her job, after Piyush’s first cancer diagnosis, to look after him.

Piyush is like any other seven-year-old who loves watching cartoons and KBC, is a computer whiz and wants to be a pilot. However, the shy smile does not hide the scars and pain of intense chemotherapy.

“He would cry during the sessions but when he saw what his pain did to us, he controlled his tears, so that we are not distressed,” adds Maltesh. The Kolurs are from Karnataka but shifted to Pune last year. Piyush is under Dr Shailesh Kanvinde’s care at the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital. The family is now getting ready to take their child abroad for the life-saving operation to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore for the transplant which will be done by Dr Patrick Tan who has started a search for a matching donor.

The Kolurs are likely to leave for Singapore by next week. The family still is short by Rs 50 lakh—Rs 25 lakh for the operation and Rs 25 lakh that the travel and the four month stay would cost. As for little Piyush, he is aware what the Singapore trip means. Yet he only talks of adding to his shell collections. “When I come back my teachers say they will take me directly in standard II, even if I have not attended school since December,” says the boy.