Help Brijkishore Battle Cancer - The Nation Needs His Services

Even as Budda Aruna Reddy created history by becoming the first Indian to clinch a medal at the Gymnastics World Cup in Melbourne last month, her coach N Brij Kishore was on the sick bed and a couple of weeks later it was diagnosed that he was struck with stomach or gastric cancer.

The coach is struggling to meet the medical expenses as he is not a ‘regular’ employee and neither was he given any financial reward by the state government for helping Aruna win the bronze.

Kishore is undergoing treatment at the Basavatarakam Indo American Cancer Hospital & Research Institute in the city for the last two weeks. Earlier, he was at the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology where it was diagnosed that he had cancer.

Aruna has been training under coach Brij Kishore with whom she won medals at various international & national platforms. 

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After coming to know about Kishore’s sickness, A Dinakar Babu, VC & MD, SATS, had granted the coach Rs 2 lakh towards the treatment. “There is no medical insurance or health card for the contract coaches and therefore they have to shell out money from their own pocket in case of emergencies. There is medical reimbursement but we don’t know how much will be given. But the problem is that the family will first have to shell out the money towards all the expenses and there are many who cannot afford to treat a disease like cancer without any support,” said a coach.

It is learnt that the family cleared the bill at the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology with the Rs 2 lakh that was given by SATS. But the expenses incurred earlier and the one that they are incurring at the hospital needs to be taken care of. “It is estimated that the treatment will cost around Rs 5 lakh and the family has to clear the daily bills which come to Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000. This is quite a burden for the family as the reimbursement will take quite some time. It is a very unfortunate situation for a coach, who gave his life for the promotion of sports in the country,”

“Despite the meagre salary and the lack of facilities at the gymnasium, Kishore worked hard with Aruna and turned her into a world champion. But today there is no one to help him and his family".

Kishore has two daughters – the older one has just completed her Intermediate and the younger one is in Class VIII.