4-Year-Old With Cancer Wants To Get Better And Go To School | Milaap
4-Year-Old With Cancer Wants To Get Better And Go To School Soon
  • Budhu

    Created by

    Budhu Mahato
  • SR

    This fundraiser will benefit

    Soumya Rajpurohit

    from Borivali, Maharashtra


When her brother, Kavya (7), shows her the pictures of different animals and asks her to identify them, 4-year-old Soumya does so correctly and even supplies additional information –“The cow gives us milk, bhaiya. It has two horns. It is different from a horse…” Her banter does not stop. Soumya is bright and knows so much more than other children her age, but she has never stepped foot in a nursery, let alone a school yet. Even though her arms shake from weakness, she draws and paints in her free time.“I will go to school like you one day, bhaiya and show these drawings to my teacher,” she says with a frail smile.



Cancer has been plaguing this sweet little child since she was just 15 months old. Injections and strong medicines have become a part of her daily routine so much so that she just smiles at the nurse when she pierces a needle in her arm. Her fight with cancer can end once and for all with a bone marrow transplant, but her parents have exhausted all their resources to keep her alive till this point.

“When will my hair grow back, Mumma?”

Little Soumya has only had a full head of hair once in the last three years that she has been battling cancer. That was when she was declared cancer-free for a brief period. “Those three months were the happiest for our family. After undergoing gruelling chemotherapy for long, my baby had become well – she still had to go for monthly visits to the doctor, but we were convinced that she had beat cancer for good,” says Soumya’s father, Atul, adding, “But soon, she started vomiting and suffering from intermittent fevers again in July 2018. When the doctors said the word ‘cancer’ again, something died inside of me. All those struggles came to my mind in a flash – but I knew I had to fight for my daughter’s life.”  



Today, Soumya is undergoing higher doses of chemotherapy due to the aggressive nature of her cancer. She can hardly get up from the bed, but she gathers all her energy and sketches on the drawing pad that her father got her. When she catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she asks her mother innocently, “Mumma, when do you think my hair will go back?” Her mother, Rekha, assures her that it will grow back soon, despite knowing the painful truth.

Atul can free his daughter from the clutches of cancer with your help

Atul works in the marketing department of an imitation jewellery brand in Mumbai. Ever since Soumya got sick, he was forced to shuttle back and forth from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, as she underwent her first rounds of chemotherapy there. Life had become very difficult but he could not completely give up on his job as he is the only breadwinner of his family. He had to rely on his in-laws and wife to take care of his little doll while he toiled hard to arrange enough money for her treatment. “I was lucky that my employers were kind enough to let me have a flexible work schedule. I was able to manage expenses by borrowing from my friends and relatives till now, but I cannot do that anymore. I need more money than ever for Soumya’s bone marrow transplant now and time is running out. I feel helpless,” he says.


Soumya, before she lost all her hair due to cancer

 While he is narrating his struggle, Atul’s mind always goes back to the time before baby Soumya got sick. “She never suffered from even fever, you see. We never had to take her to the hospital except for her vaccinations. And now…,” he tears up.

How you can help

Baby Soumya is brave and is not scared of injections like the other children in her ward. She is blissfully unaware of the deadliness of her condition, but she knows that she is very sick. “God will save me,” she tells her worried mother all the time. But the truth is that without money, her parents will not be able to afford her bone marrow transplant – the only way her life can be saved.

Your kind contribution can help save this innocent child’s life


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