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Doctor Rajagopal offers palliative care services free of cost to the needy, treating the terminally ill and helping their families at the remotest parts of Kerala.
M.R Rajagopal ‘ The father of palliative care in India’ experienced a life-defining moment at a very young age when he was studying medicine when and his neighbour was diagnosed with cancer.
M.R Rajagopal ‘ The father of palliative care in India’ experienced a life-defining moment at a very young age when he was studying medicine when and his neighbour was diagnosed with cancer.
"He lived about 100 metres away,” recalls 71-year-old Dr Rajagopal, “All night I could hear him screaming in pain. I felt terribly helpless. That helplessness has stayed with me all these years and was one of the reasons that made me look at pain as a disease.” - Dr. Rajagopal
In 1993, driven by the desire to provide palliative care to the needy, the doctor started the Pain and Palliative Care Society. In one short year, the Society developed a full-fledged home visit programme with trained doctors making their way to bed-ridden patients, often in far-flung rural areas and sometimes in neighbourhoods in their own cities.
Since then, for the past 25 years, Rajagopal has impacted the lives of thousands of people with life-threatening diseases at the remotest parts of Kerala.
"It’s difficult for us to reach them but imagine how difficult it will be for them to reach us. It is impossible, they will die agonising deaths if we don’t take the effort to reach them."
In a bid to curb the destructive effects of the disease on patients and their families, the organisation offers patients free treatment as well as free medicines. For families who are struggling to put food on the table, food packets are provided. The education of the kids in the suffering families is also taken up by his organisation. Rajagopal offers complete care to the families of the affected.
"We work only on donations. To continue our work with the families and to stop their suffering we need money. With your kind help, we will be able to save lives, educate children and prevent these families from being destroyed."
