“My amma smiled through everything and she taught me to do the same. Growing up, we smiled our way through hardships. She has always been our anchor and we all held on to her tightly. I realized that life had come a full circle when she held onto my hand tightly on the hospital bed. It broke my heart to see her desperately trying to hold on to my hand as she was taken away for her chemotherapy session.”

• Santhosh Kumar, Rama’s son

48-year-old Rama Devi lived a fulfilling life. After her two sons got married recently she was looking forward to spending some quality time with her husband. Her daughter had married a couple of years earlier and Rama’s life revolved around splitting her time between the houses of all her three children.

“Around 2 months ago, mum started complaining of persistent pain in her chest. She was complaining that we were pampering her too much. She told me that nothing good can come out of sitting idle. In fact, she was so adamant that she insisted on doing all the house chores by herself until the pain rapidly worsened and she wasn’t able to bear it anymore”.

• Santhosh

They took her to Sri Kalyan Nursing home near their house in Hyderabad. They had to endure a long gruelling wait as they made their mom go through various tests. Rama Devi was still convinced that it was the old age getting to her. Never once did she pause to think that it might actually be something that went well beyond her old age.

“The diagnosis shocked her beyond belief. Just like that, December 2018 had made her a breast cancer patient, overnight. The persistent chest pain was an indication of her rare form of cancer- High-grade DCIS of Cribriform cameo and micropapillary pattern. We were told that she would require chemotherapy, focus radiation and two injections, which will subsequently be followed by surgery.”

• Devaraj, Rama’s husband

Santosh was barely able to come to terms with the fact that his mom was just diagnosed with cancer. His immediate concern had to do with the lack of funds given the fact that both Santosh and his brother just got married recently. They were already trying to repay the loans. Additionally, the fact that  Rama’s husband repaired TV’s for a living and he had no means to earn a stable income made him worry a lot about their mom’s treatment.

“I work in a small IT firm and my monthly income is barely enough to feed my family. Meanwhile, both my brother and I have our monthly loan payments to worry about. We had to borrow money to fund mom’s initial chemotherapy and injections, we have already spent about Rs 1.8 lakh on that. Currently, she is admitted at Basavaratakam Indo- American Hospital as she undergoes regular treatment that will eventually prepare her for the surgery.”

• Santhosh

The treatment is set to cost them Rs 16 lakhs. They don’t have much to call their savings but that doesn’t stop from them from wanting to power through this difficult time. It has been rather unsettling for this family to get used to the fact that their mom has become a cancer patient. For someone who has been sheltering her children all her life, now they feel like the time has come for them to shelter her.

“The initial chemotherapy and injections have come with their own side effects and it is starting to show. Mum is always fatigued, I can’t remember the last time I saw her smile. She has trouble staying awake and she barely speaks. But every time she prepares herself to go to the hospital, she still holds my hand for reassurance. Deep down, I know that my mom is strong enough to conquer cancer.”

• Santhosh