THE INCIDENCE OF CANCER IS RISING IN THE COUNTRY.

Yes, you can!

THE INCIDENCE OF CANCER IS RISING IN THE COUNTRY. BUT IN YOUR FIGHT AGAINST THE DISEASE, REMAINING POSITIVE GOES A LONG WAY IN WINNING OVER IT, SAY EXPERTS

    Last year cancer struck closer home when a very close friend of mine got diagnosed with breast cancer. She is a homemaker, who is also a reflexology expert and a professional yoga trainer. She is the perfect hostess, who enjoys throwing parties for her friends and treating them with her exotic home-made dishes. She is an avid traveller, who loves to visit new places with her entrepreneur husband and two sons. Life was beautiful till cancer struck.
    While all of us tried to cope with the news, what amazed me was Jhula’s indomitable spirit with which she decided to fight the disease. Once she got over the initial shock of being diagnosed with second stage of cancer, she fought it head on.
    “In fact, her attitude gave me a lot of courage. The credit also goes to our sons. When we first told them, Prajit’s first reaction was - ‘Don’t worry, Mummy, breast cancer is curable. So get yourself treated.’ For a 13-year-old to know that it’s curable and to react in such a positive way was very reassuring for both Jhula and me. Even when she was going through the after-effects of chemo, they took it really well,” recalls Manas P Barua. Now she is leading a normal life.
    According to experts, positive attitude definitely helps. Once a person accepts that he has cancer and gets ready to undergo treatment with a happy attitude, it makes a lot of difference.
    “A positive mind generates happy hormones which helps the body to fight back. So a patient with a positive take on life will bounce back better than a person full of negativity,” reveals Dr Pushpa Gaikwad, who is associated with CanSupport. This non-profit organization provides free palliative home care to cancer patients.
    In fact, a major part of CanSupport’s services includes counseling both the patients and their families, providing integrated palliative service.
    “In other words, when we visit a patient at home, we have a team of a doctor, a nurse and a counsellor. So while treating him for his physical pain, we also take care of him mind and soul. This counselling also involves the family as they also go through tremendous trauma,” says Dr Gaikwad.
    There are many organizations which focus mainly on prevention and early detection, besides providing emotional support. Indian Cancer Society, I Can Win Foundation and Roko Cancer are a few such organizations that have been working relentlessly over the years in this regard.
    “As a principle, we don’t say fight against cancer; it’s always win over cancer. And it’s not a cancer survivor. It’s a cancer winner. Just making little changes in the terminology, you can bring in a lot of positivity towards this disease. We at I Can Win Foundation truly believe that winning is an attitude. A person who wins is the person who THINKS he can win. And this is what we try to propagate among our members,” states Dr Pawan Gupta, an oncology surgeon and President of I Can Win Foundation.
    “Just a mere suspicion that one might have any form of cancer makes people paranoid. So once a person is actually diagnosed with cancer, it’s but natural that he or she feels intimidated. That’s when organizations like Indian Cancer Society can pitch in. Since most of our members, including myself, are cancer survivors, we know what they are going through at this moment. So when we counsel them, they feel reassured that it’s not the end of the world. Life will be the same once the treatment is over,” points out Geeta Malik, President of Cancer Sahyog, a unit of Indian Cancer Society
HE FOUGHT AND HOW! When Yuvraj Singh was diagnosed with stage I lung cancer in 2011, the whole nation was left shattered. It was right after India winning the World Cup, where he was declared the Man of the Tournament. He underwent chemotherapy treatment in the USA. Yuvraj was discharged from hospital in March 2012 after completing the third and final cycle of chemotherapy. The cricketer showed the world the kind of the fighter he is, both on the filed as well as off the filed as he made his international comeback in a Twenty20 match in September against New Zealand shortly before the 2012 World Twenty20. His organization, Yuvraj Singh Foundation (YSF), works to generate awareness and facilitate early detection of cancer through its initiative YOUWECAN

(FROM RIGHT) JHULA WITH PRAJIT, UDIT AND MANAS