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Tata Hospital's cancer-stricken children call on president

Ten-year-old Vansh Gupta was elated to be in the magnanimous edifice of Lutyens' Delhi. In 2011, a tumour was detected in his left knee after it turned blackish. His left leg had to be amputated to restrict the cancerous growth.

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President Pranab Mukherjee with a group of cancer survivors from Parel’s Tata Memorial Hospital, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi
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President Pranab Mukherjee had 14 cheerful visitors from Mumbai last month. Young cancer survivors from the Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in Parel had dropped by at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi to meet Mukherjee.

Ten-year-old Vansh Gupta was elated to be in the magnanimous edifice of Lutyens' Delhi. In 2011, a tumour was detected in his left knee after it turned blackish. His left leg had to be amputated to restrict the cancerous growth.

Vansh never uses crutches to walk. At times, he wears an artificial leg, at others, he prances around balancing himself well on one leg. "The Rashtrapati Bhavan is unimaginably huge. It has 340 rooms and the president's library has a humungous collection of books," he gushed.

Mukherjee spent five minutes meeting the children but, they said, he barely had time to talk to them at all. "One of us had even prepared a speech for the occasion, but there was no time. If there was one thing I could have requested the honourable president, then it would have been for him to come and visit Tata hospital," Vansh said.

Another one from the group, Std VI student and a tech freak Yash Shrivastava devised a portable mobile phone charger for Mukherjee within days, after doctors told the children to create something to gift the president. "I studied the circuit diagram online, shopped for the components and made the charger. I was restrained from carrying it inside Rashtrapati Bhavan though, for security reasons," he said.

The Allahabad resident was afflicted with a tumour on his left kidney, which had to be removed in 2008. His family spent over Rs12 lakh for the treatment. "It is sad that Uttar Pradesh does not have adequate facilities. There are no expert doctors or proper infrastructure. The central government should take cognisance of these problems," said Manoj, Yash's father, who works in a real estate firm.

TMH is under the Department of Atomic Energy. While in the 1990s, the paediatric oncology department used to see a thousand cancer-stricken children every year, the number has doubled in the past decade.

"Paediatric cancer is an aggressive and prolonged disease. The average cost of treatment is up to Rs3 lakh; 80% of the patients cannot afford to pay bills and, thus, we require a lot of support. We are always short of funds and parents are so busy with treatment that they have no time to run around asking for donations. Some patients drop out of the treatment as they don't find a cheap place to stay in Mumbai," said Dr S Banavali, head, paediatric oncology, TMH.

"The hospital does complete financial adoption of almost 100 children every year and aims to expand its reach," said Shalini Jatia, secretary, Impacct Foundation of TMH.

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