Parents Forced To Live In A Shelter After Selling Everything To Save Their Son From Cancer

Whenever Mythri and Vikas Gope tell their son, Pratik, that they are ‘going home’ after visiting him at the hospital in Chennai, the little one imagines that they are going back to a proper house, like the small two-room one that they own back in Agartala. But little does the 6-year-old know that his parents and younger brother, Pulkit, head back 'home' to a shelter for homeless and destitute people.

“Our son does not know how pathetic our condition is. My husband is an ordinary carpenter, but he has not been able to find work here because he has been by our side, as I cannot manage things at the hospital alone. We are struggling to eat one proper meal a day, but all we can think about is our son. We just want him to be alright.” - Mythri, mother

Cancer had spared him once, but it came back with a vengeance

Pratik was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2020. His parents had already arranged for him to start kindergarten, and the young boy had been eagerly anticipating going to school for the first time. But as fate would have it, he got really sick with fever and recurrent infections, which concluded with a cancer diagnosis. He beat cancer after prolonged chemotherapy and supportive treament. Yet, his progress did not last long.

“Pratik was getting ready to finally go to school again, when his cancer came back. He got sick more often and we had to go through the same cycle of hospital visits, medicines and treatment. We fear we may lose him this time.” – Mythri.

Pratik is suffering from B-Cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a type of blood cancer. It starts in the bone marrow, where new blood cells are produced. The leukemia cells grow very fast and hinder the bone marrow's function of making normal cells. Although ALL is treatable, Pratik’s condition is so severe that he needs a bone marrow transplant at the earliest to survive.

They have sold everything they had and are left with nothing

Vikas used to work as a small-time carpenter to support his family, before they came to Chennai for Pratik’s treatment. Now he is jobless here, as he has to be with his son in the hospital most of the time. He had to sell his house and all of the family's valuable assets just to make the trip, leaving his family with nothing to even get them by.

“If the NGO based in Chennai had not given us shelter and food, we would have died hungry. We are in a terrible situation – both financially and emotionally. Now doctors are saying that Pratik will need a bone marrow transplant to stay alive. How will we manage such an expensive surgery in these circumstances?” - Vikas, father.

Pratik’s family needs your urgent help to save him. Click here to contribute to this cause.