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“I thought she had fallen…but then I saw her there was blood on her hands, around her mouth on the sheets. She just sat on the bed crying and screaming…before she started coughing again. It’s the most scared I’ve been. After everything else we’ve been through this year…now our daughter has cancer!”
– Garima, mother
– Garima, mother
They can't even afford a toothbrush for themselves
Little Anaya has lost a lot this year – the house she grew up in, the school she went to, the happy childhood she once had. Now, she can lose her life too.“We had a small business which shut down in May. We were running under a loss, we are in debt…our Anaya has suffered a lot because of this. We mortgaged our house and had to find a small rented house…we didn’t have money to even pay Anaya’s fees. We had to stop sending her to school. Our meals, every small thing we need, even a toothbrush, has been paid by our relatives.”
Sanket and Garima are in no position to afford Anaya’s chemotherapy. When she was diagnosed, they first took her to a government hospital. But it was so overcrowded, that it would take months to start her treatment. They could waste no time. But now they have nothing to continue the chemotherapy she needs.
This devastated mother fears her daughter might not survive the pain
Anaya has now finished one round of chemotherapy. She needs the next one tomorrow. Garima is beyond devasted, she looks around the cancer ward, at the other children going through as much pain as Anaya. She knows what the next few months and years hold for Anaya, and she’s scared.“I know this disease can change you completely, it can take away your hair, your strength…your hope. I still can’t believe that my 6-year-old daughter has to go through all this! I also have a 1-year-old baby to take care of….on some days I don’t even remember what I did five minutes ago. It’s all a haze.”
“She asks me why we’re here, why she was coughing blood. We tell her it’s a fever…but that’s the only thing she ever says to us. She was so talkative, so active…now she just lays there. And this is just the beginning.”
Sanket is now desperately looking for work. Their relatives have been supportive till now, but there’s only so much they can do. If Anaya’s chemotherapy isn’t continued, they could lose her to this deadly disease. This family has only experienced loss since May, you are their only hope now. You are Anaya’s only hope.
