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She was our backbone, she kept us all together, kept us moving forward. She was the source of my strength for the past 6 years, as we struggled to keep Gnapika alive. Now she’s gone.
My wife’s gone, my daughter is dying, and I don’t know what to do anymore.
— Nagaraju, Gnapika’s father
This family hasn’t known any peace ever since Gnapika was first diagnosed with cancer. For three years Nagaraju and his wife, Jayanthi, struggled, both of them working full-time to earn as much money as possible. Juggling work and the responsibility of raising 2 children is a great task in itself, but when one of the children has cancer, the stress and difficulty increase by a thousandfold.
“Each day we lived in fear, not knowing if we’d succeed, if our daughter would survive...”
Her cancer went into remission, only to come back worse than before
“Two years ago they said the cancer was gone, but we knew there was a possibility it could come back, so we kept working day and night, saving up as much as possible. Last year our fears came true, and the cancer relapsed! It was so bad she was just inches away from dying! Fortunately, we were able to get her a bone marrow transplant, we thought it’d save her life. But now even that has failed, and she needs a few more months of ICU before she can finally come home!”
Without his wife, Nagaraju feels more lost than ever
Nagaraju and Jayanthi both quit their jobs after Gnapika’s transplant in October, as taking care of her became a two-person job. This was especially difficult as they had accumulated multiple heavy debts. Despite their efforts, their savings had only covered a fraction of all the costs.
“Jayanthi suddenly passed away a few weeks ago, and she took all the strength I had with her. Suddenly I’m a single father with tens of lakhs of debt, and two children, one of whom is dying because of cancer. What do I do? What can I do? How do I save my daughter?!”
All she needs is a few months of ICU, all she needs is you
Recovery is just an arm’s length away for little Gnapika, all she needs is a little bit of help to reach out and grasp it. Her father — and her mother when she was alive — tried as hard as possible to give this little one her life back, but it wasn’t enough. This 8-year-old is now counting on you to save her life, to give her the chance to grieve the loss of her mother.
