Lisa preparing for stem cell transplant to treat cancer

The star of ‘Water’, ‘Kasoor’ and ‘Bollywood/Hollywood’ was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, in June and began chemotherapy in July this year.
Ray, an Indo-Canadian actress and a former fashion model, will be admitted to a Toronto hospital next week to start a procedure that involves releasing her own stem cells into her blood, collecting them and then freezing them.

The 37-year-old said the procedure would take about two weeks and act as a “reboot” of sorts for her system, after which she will be on a waiting list for stem cell transplant. Ray jokes that the whole thing feels “very sci-fi” to her.

The film star, born to a Polish mother and a Bengali father, spoke on Tuesday at an event for REEL Canada, a programme that brings Canadian movies to schools for free.
Ray’s film ‘Water’, directed by Deepa Mehta, was played for students at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School. It was also recently screened at a film festival in Buenos Aires and Ray made the trip to see it.

She said she stayed there for 10 days and it was nice to “get a little bit of a break” from her treatment.