Celebrating life, hospice style

For five days now over 90 children at Happy Feet Hospice, India's only hospice for children, have been having the time of their life. The children with thalassemia and HIV/AIDS have been treated to a week long celebration involving movies, visits to an aquarium as well as an elaborate lunch — all sponsored by individuals.

"This is the third year we are doing it. So far the celebrations have been low key but this time all our events were sponsored and we've had close to 100 children at each celebration," said Mansi Shah, who co-founded the hospice in Sion.

A hospice is a place where patients with terminal illness come to spend time. Palliative care that focuses on relieving pain is central to a hospice. The children coming to Happy Feet Home are those who come to Sion hospital for treatment.

The children were so excited that all of them got their blood transfusions done before the celebrations began so that they wouldn't have to miss even a single event. Some of the children come from as far as Kalyan and Mira Road to spend time at the hospice every day.

"Many of the children had not seen snow at all so they found the trip to Snow World at Imagica, which was highly subsized, very exciting," Shah said.

A total of Rs 3 lakh was contributed by various individuals for the week long celebrations. Shah first got an idea after reading an article online about hospice week in the UK. Princess Kate Middleton this week has been visiting several hospices in the UK to commemorate hospice week there.

What is Thalassemia

Thalassemia is a genetic blood disorder which restricts the production of haemoglobin in the body. 
Thalassemia patients suffering from low red blood cell count need to get blood transfusions after every 15 days.