After two years of my marriage with Biplab, our happiness knew no bounds when we welcomed our little bundle of joy, Arnav. We live in a joint family in Basirhat, West Bengal, and Arnav is the first child in his generation. I had no idea then that it would be the start of so much pain for him.



Biplab runs a digital photo studio near our house. His daily income is used up in making ends meet. We were not rich, but Biplab and I found happiness in little things. Life showed us that people who struggle just need to keep struggling harder. Just when we thought nothing bad could happen to us, suddenly my little baby stopped feeding. His stomach swelled up abnormally.

We didn't realize that the slow growth is slowly killing our baby

From his birth, Arnav used to take very little food. His growth was slow. We never thought it would be a problem. But from February, this year, my baby started falling very sick. When his stomach started swelling, we took him to the local doctors immediately.

X-ray and urine test were carried out on him and the doctors said that antibiotics should help him. Even after two days, there was no change and I started panicking. A mother’s fears are never false.



Deep down, I knew something was very wrong. I couldn’t wait for something worse to happen to him. He is just 1.5-years-old. We took him to another doctor. In the meantime, he had started vomiting and having loose motions. My baby had become alarmingly weak in no time.

Cancer was a word that changed our lives

The new doctors confirmed that his haemoglobin level had dropped terribly and he had a huge tumour in his stomach which was the swelling. He had neuroblastoma, a type of cancer in the nerve tissues.



My world crashed. I couldn’t believe that my baby had cancer and as his mother, I can’t even take his pain away. His blood levels had to be brought back to normal. He was constantly been given blood transfusions. Arnav then started having problems breathing. The size of his belly scared us. Doctors said that my baby needed an urgent operation to survive.



Although the surgery to get rid of a tumor was carried out, it was not a complete success. The doctors not only told us that my little baby had internal haemorrhage and the tumour had burst in several places, but also that there are several small tumours growing in his body.

Since February, we have been travelling to and fro from Basirhat and Kolkata. We don’t know anyone in Kolkata and can’t afford to rent a room near the hospital.



The hospital is kind enough to provide accommodation to the parents of small babies. If we didn’t have this facility, we would have ended up on the streets.

All ways are shut for us now

Earlier, it was just us who owned a photo studio in our locality. Now there are more shops than customers. Lately, our business has been sinking and we manage to earn very less. In the past 3 months, our business has taken a backseat and there is no source of income.



Biplab’s parents are too old and their regular treatment is expensive. Staying in Kolkata is also huge expense in itself. We can barely manage to keep our baby’s treatment going. I feel like we have been cursed. As a mother, I am crushed from within.



Biplab has battled many more hardships than I have. He met with a severe accident in his youth. He had head injuries and leg injuries. He was bedridden for a month. It is very difficult for him to make his left leg work. Maybe our lives would have been better if he hadn’t meet with the accident.

I used to work in a private school before my baby was born. But I wanted to devote all of my time to my baby. I consciously made the choice of becoming a housewife and I didn’t know I would regret my decision.



We have already spent Rs 5 lakhs in the past 2 months. Whatever I had saved over the time that I worked, is gone now. From Biplab’s income, we never managed to save anything. We also had to sell off our gold jewellery so we could get the money to save our little one.

We have no money left and there are no means to arrange such huge sum of money. Our relatives have helped us a little, but even they have their families and they have refused help. We don’t even know where we can arrange funds for our basic survival.

How can you help?

My little baby is suffering more than our eyes can tolerate. He needs an urgent surgery and bone marrow transplant to live. It’s heartbreaking to say, but his life comes at a cost of Rs 6 lakhs.

Your support can save baby Arnav.