What survivors can teach you about cancer that internet can't
The internet these days is flooded with chaos, misinformation, hatred and all that epitomises confusion. And if you wish to cull out relevant information about cancer, it is a cauldron of scary facts and figures, carefully curated for anxious cancer patients and their kin.
I had the first taste of consuming dismal information about the disease when my twin sister, my best friend and my other half Monika was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in October 2015.
After having been in remission for a few months, the disease relapsed and this time with more aggression. Since then, all I have experienced with her is a roller-coaster ride. We have together battled the disease like warriors. Not because we had no other choice.
It is because we both believed that warriors fight to win. And during the process the internet has been our worst enemy. Every time we turned towards it for hope, all it threw at us was a terrible prognosis and disappointing case studies of people succumbing to the disease.
The world outside the internet felt like the reflection of what the internet spoke about. Everybody we broke the news of her medical condition looked at us with sympathy and with an expression that cancer can only bring upon death.
For a cancer patient and his kin, even one story of success means life. And to our dismay, there was not a single thread of motivation left for us to latch on to.
Most often inspiring ideas are born from the womb of adversity. In our case, we decided to create a platform which works towards survival awareness, which means helping those affected by cancer find hope and stories of people who have fought the disease with true valour and emerged victorious.
How we arrived at the idea is in itself a story that should be recounted for sheer need of motivation among people and families affected by cancer.
One afternoon, I was sitting with the head of medical oncology at one of the best hospitals in Delhi NCR discussing a difficult course of treatment to save Monika's life.
While he was explaining the grave consequences of Flag IDA, a toxic chemotherapy drug given to patients suffering from leukemia as a salvage option, I had my gaze fixed on his lips pronouncing the painful truth. He said that my sister might not be able to tolerate the drug and might succumb within seven days of treatment and emphatically mentioned that 10 per cent patients actually die during this treatment.
I had to take a call immediately. I decided that my twin who I was born with and had spent the entire life gathering so many memories with, will take the toxic treatment. The outcome could be lethal but I took the call on her behalf that she will.
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| One day my twin came up with the idea of starting a website. |
As I stepped out of the doctor’s cabin, I noticed my sister sitting outside with a confident look on her face. I felt emotional but held back the tears almost welling up in my eyes and pushed the lump gathering in my throat down. I projected to her that it was a cost-related discussion with the doctor and that he assured we were doing good.
Nonetheless, the treatment began and along with it, began the seven-day countdown. During this phase, she would be on 24X7 oxygen support with an infected lung filled with fluid. I would be with her in a bone marrow transplant ICU through the day and watch her fight the battle with complete faith on the doctors and herself.
She would often call me by her side and mutter her conviction to me. She would raise her hand in a victory symbol affirming that she will win, come what may. And I’d hold her hand to say, "of course we will". Also, she’d often call me near her and mumble a request and that was “don’t believe what the doctors say. I will win".
It wasn’t easy for me as her twin to see her go through so much pain with immense strength and often found myself burying my fears, apprehensions and confusion in the face of the worst crisis of my life. Both of us were fighting a lonely battle, albeit with each other by our side.
Seven days passed like a storm but the calm after that felt surreal. She began to show miraculous improvement with her blood count rising steadily.
It was during this time that we began brainstorming about what could we possibly do to bring the change in the way people look at cancer and its prognosis. While we juggled with several ideas in the BMT ICU, one day my twin came up with the idea of starting a website called www.strongerthancancers.com with the mission to fill the void with hope for millions of cancer warriors who are made to believe that cancer cannot be cured.
To break the stigma, we decided to bring the stories of marvellous victories of cancer warriors over the disease and inspire every cancer patient to fight and win like no one ever imagined. The mission behind the website was to ensure that no one took chemotherapy with a broken morale and spread the message that cancer is only a diagnosis and not a death sentence.
From the hospital ICU, Stronger than Cancer was born and has successfully managed to bring inspiring stories of success of cancer warriors over their disease and shall continue to live its mission. After all, there is no dearth of cancer awareness. What is desperately needed is cancer survival awareness. The belief that there are so many cancer survivors out there, who fought with exemplary courage and managed to win!
While most of us are often caught up with our daily chores and feel bogged down by the challenges life throws at us, few people acquaint us with the idea of living a mission despite being in the middle of painful circumstances. People who inspire us with an undying spirit.
While I am talking about the message of hope, I can’t miss the mention of Sean Swarner. Amid so much negativity spilled all over the internet about cancer, Sean has managed to deliver a very powerful message to those affected by the disease - that there is hope.
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| Sean is the only cancer survivor in the world to have climbed the Mt Everest with one functional lung. |
Sean says: “The human body can live roughly 30 days without food. The human condition can sustain itself for roughly three days without water, but no human alive can live for more than 30 seconds without hope."
Sean is a two-time cancer survivor and synonymous to the power of the human spirit over a hopeless prognosis. Sean is the only cancer survivor in the world to have climbed the Mt Everest with one functional lung.
Summiting the Everest can be a very daunting task even for climbers who are physically fit and mentally prepared to take on the mighty mountain. Here, it was a cancer survivor with one lung who managed to do the impossible. Not only this, Sean has climbed all other six tallest summits and has trekked across Antarctica to the South Pole.
At the moment, he is all geared up to trek to the North Pole to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam. Sean is carrying a "Flag of Hope" along with him, with the names of cancer survivors and the names of those who fought valiantly but succumbed.
Sean calls this initiative Mission of Hope. The money raised as part of the mission will be directed towards funding cancer research, supporting those suffering from cancer and empowering survivors. In two days, Sean will begin his trek and with it the message of hope will reach millions affected by cancer and otherwise.
Another ray of hope for all cancer patients and their kin is Rahul Yadav, the founder of Yoddhas. Yoddhas is a support group created by Rahul to empower those affected by the disease. His group counsels, supports and helps families raise money for cancer treatment. Rahul is battling cancer the third time. But does that bring his spirits down? Instead, he is even more determined to battle the disease like a warrior and beat it for the third time.
In the middle of a deep crisis we often find ourselves complaining about what the ideal should be. On the contrary, we have Monika, Sean and Rahul who have managed to find a purpose in their life and are meaningfully living a mission, in the face of their worst crisis.
Though it is hard to imagine how they managed to gather the courage to plan their initiatives to bring hope, the truth is they have and with a lot of heart and toil put together.
According to a WHO report, globally one in five men and one in six women will develop cancer before the age of 75.And one in eight men, and one in 12 women, will die from the disease.
Currently, 14 million people a year are diagnosed with cancer. According to that report, the numbers will increase to 19 million by 2025, 22 million by 2030 and 24 million by 2035. While these figures look alarming, the relief is that there is still so much hope and there are people who have made cancer awareness and cancer survival awareness the mission of their lives.