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Our very normal life with my parents was moving along like any other typical urban household until two years back when my father, Tamal Ghatak was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in the skin of his lower limb. At that time in 2018, my father was looking forward to a retired life in a few years and that plan was surely upended.
My father had graduated from Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur in 1985 and has been in employment with Kolkata Municipal Corporation since graduating from college. Like most Bengali parents, his life has revolved around his job and family besides immersing himself in local charitable work. Looking back, I realize that my father's life has mostly been dedicated to making life better for his family and people who he came across, with little time devoted to his own self.
So, it came as a shock to him and us when the doctors recommended that one of the toes on his left foot be amputated in 2018. Fast forward 2020 and a recent excision biopsy at several points shows that the disease is spreading fast, with no chemotherapy or radiation treatment possible. According to the attending physicians, my father's only chance of survival is immunotherapy. This is a continuous treatment with an estimated cost covering only the procedure at Rs.2,500,000 (Rupees Twenty Five Lakhs) for a year. So far our family has already spent upward of Rs.600,000 (Rupees Six Lakhs) for his treatment.
When we thought our misery has reached the bottom, COVID-19 struck both my parents. Though they seem to have recovered from COVID-19, with his immune system severely compromised, the doctors are eager to start his cancer treatment as soon as possible.
With depleting financial resources, we do not have much hope to provide the medical care that my father needs without the financial generosity of readers like you.
As a daughter, for whom the father has always been the proverbial umbrella over my head, I appeal to you to extend your helping hand to meet the cost of medication for my father, while we use every last resource that we have, to cover associated medical expenses.
My father had graduated from Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur in 1985 and has been in employment with Kolkata Municipal Corporation since graduating from college. Like most Bengali parents, his life has revolved around his job and family besides immersing himself in local charitable work. Looking back, I realize that my father's life has mostly been dedicated to making life better for his family and people who he came across, with little time devoted to his own self.
So, it came as a shock to him and us when the doctors recommended that one of the toes on his left foot be amputated in 2018. Fast forward 2020 and a recent excision biopsy at several points shows that the disease is spreading fast, with no chemotherapy or radiation treatment possible. According to the attending physicians, my father's only chance of survival is immunotherapy. This is a continuous treatment with an estimated cost covering only the procedure at Rs.2,500,000 (Rupees Twenty Five Lakhs) for a year. So far our family has already spent upward of Rs.600,000 (Rupees Six Lakhs) for his treatment.
When we thought our misery has reached the bottom, COVID-19 struck both my parents. Though they seem to have recovered from COVID-19, with his immune system severely compromised, the doctors are eager to start his cancer treatment as soon as possible.
With depleting financial resources, we do not have much hope to provide the medical care that my father needs without the financial generosity of readers like you.
As a daughter, for whom the father has always been the proverbial umbrella over my head, I appeal to you to extend your helping hand to meet the cost of medication for my father, while we use every last resource that we have, to cover associated medical expenses.
