Share
“It hurts me so much to see her like this. Look at her, she’s so tiny! I never knew small babies could get such big diseases! Instead of crying for more milk, she is screaming in pain, and there's nothing I can do!I try my best to soothe her, I tell her everything will be okay. But there’s a cancer growing in my baby’s body, and it can kill her at any moment! All I can do is pray for a miracle...” — Anjali, mother
Anjali and Ujjwal were playing with their daughter when they noticed a small hard lump on their baby’s abdomen, a few inches away from her heart. Suitably panicked, the parents rushed her to a local clinic for answers.
“They did a scan of her abdomen, and then told us they wanted to do it one more time because they couldn’t see the liver properly. It had looked like something was covering it; we didn’t know then that what we were looking at was cancer!”
Baby Ankita was diagnosed with liver cancer
“The clinic suggested we take her to a bigger hospital, so that’s what we did, we brought her to Bangalore. More scans were done immediately, and when the results were ready, the doctor pulled us aside and told us that... our baby has liver cancer, and that only a full course of chemotherapy could save her. For a moment we were happy that at least there’s a solution, a chance for her to get better, but then we found out how much it costs! We can never afford the 8 lakhs for her treatment!”
Each moment’s delay is another moment of suffering
The cancer is really taking a toll on this poor baby. From painful swelling of the stomach due to the buildup of toxic fluid, to bouts of severe breathlessness, Ankita is in agony from the moment she wakes to when she falls asleep. The longer her treatment is delayed, the worse her condition will get. If she gets no treatment at all, eventually, this little one will pass away. Six months of chemotherapy is all she needs to beat her cancer.
“I’m just a saree weaver, I don’t make a lot of money. Our financial state is worse than it has ever been. It’s been 1.5 months since we came to Bangalore and this whole time we’ve just been living in the hospital, because we can’t even afford to rent a room! How will we afford cancer treatment, at this rate?! Please, show some mercy on my baby and help her, however you can. We need you.” — Ujjwal
