She gave up govt job to help child cancer patients

It is said that you realise pains and sufferings of others only when you yourself undergo the same and the realisation may transform one completely.

The same happened with Dr Sapna Upadhyaya, when her daughter Swarnima was diagnosed with cancer in her early childhood and had to undergo treatment for two years before she was finally cured of the disease. 

“We had to take Swarnima to Mumbai and she was given the best available medical care,” said Upadhyaya, a microbiologist. “We were able to save our daughter as we could afford the cost of the treatment,” she said. Her husband Rajiv Upadhyaya is in the shipping business. 

“It was an extremely tough time for me when I had to spend long hours at the hospital for the treatment of my daughter in 2003. During that period, I noticed hardships of a large number of families present there for the treatment of their children,” she said.

During the two years of treatment of Swarnima, she was able to see different facets of life. “I then realised how poor people, whose children were suffering from cancer, must be feeling. How difficult it must have been for them to arrange the cost of the treatment,” Upadhyaya told Deccan Herald here. 

    Being, financially unstable to afford the expensive treatment and medicines they seemed quite helpless and stressed out. “There was so much helplessness all around me,” she recalled. “I saw people getting their cancer-stricken children discharged from the hospitals for want of money and people selling their belongings for surgeries and chemotherapies,” she said. The experience completely changed her.

Upadhyaya, who was a research scholar at the prestigious National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), a Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Laboratory, based at Lucknow, quit her job and decided to dedicate herself completely to the service of the child cancer patients. “My supervisor kept on insisting that I must complete my research work but I simply ignored him,” she said. 

She initially started the work to help the child cancer patients individually and entirely from her own resources. “I would visit different hospitals, meet the parents of the cancer-stricken children and help them with medicines and other things,” she said. “My husband would help with money. Even my daughter would give me her pocket money,” she pointed out.

Upadhyaya, however, gradually reali­sed that the task was too big and her contribution was too little. “Many would tell me that I would not be able to sustain like this for long. How could you go on helping others from your own resources. My family members and even the doctors would often ask me,” she recalled. 

It was with the objective of trying to do something significant for the child cancer patients Upadhyaya formed the Eeshwar Child Welfare Foundation in 2005. “We began by supporting children suffering from cancer and admitted to the different hospitals, including the King George Medical University and others,” she said.

She said that she was told that every month 40 units of blood are needed for children suffering from blood cancer. “In an attempt to raise the required quantity of blood we started organising blood donation camps. A large number of people from different walks of life take part in the camps. We supply the blood free of cost to the hospitals,” she pointed out. 

“The organisation provides a hygiene kit to every child cancer patient, besides medicines and bearing cost of surgeries. The kit contains things like mask, nail cutter, small towel, washing and bath soaps, mouthwash and some medicines including clogen, septron and crocin.” 

She said that she realised later that the parents of the cancer-stricken children sometimes leave them unattended and return to their villages as they do not have the resources to arrange food for themselves. “We then started providing the families with rations every week. We give them rice, pulse, flour, sugar, salt, cooking oil besides biscuits and energy drinks for the patients,” she said. “Currently we are providing these items to 75 families every week,” Upadhyaya said.

“Our objective is to strive for linking poor unprotected children and their parents with main stream of society, providing solution relating to their health problems and educating them, developing positive attitude in them to fight against deadly disease of cancer and not to fear it. We want to tell everyone that childhood cancer is curable if detected earlier,” she said. 

Upadhyaya said that her organisation does not accept any help from the government. “We survive on the support of the people. We also make sure that the patients get what had been promised to them by the governments. We help them get the help,” she pointed out.

  Upadhyaya receives full support of her family. Swarnima, who is in 11th standard, in fact, helps her mother in several ways. “Swarnima has formed a group at her school. The group also arranges different items for the child cancer patients from different sources,” she said. 

Upadhyaya’s wish is to set up a rehabilitation centre for children suffering from cancer. “I have a dream. I want to set up a rehabilitation centre for the child cancer patients, an old age home and facility for helpless people,” she said.