8-Year-Old With Deadly Tumor Thinks Her Belly Is Huge Because Of A Demon Inside It

When Priya is not lying down due to extreme weakness, she asks her mother difficult questions: Why is my stomach growing bigger and bigger every day? Is there a demon inside it? Will I die soon? Before her mother can even begin to answer her questions, she passes out due to exhaustion and ends up sleeping for hours.

“She cannot do even basic activities by herself - I have to help change her clothes, give her a bath and even take her to the washroom. At night, if I doze off for a few minutes, she can wet the bed,”-Phalguni, mother

Little Priya's tumour has been growing since Makar Sankranti in January

A child who loved eating sweets, Priya would wait eagerly for festivals. It was the only time her poor parents would get sweets and eatables from neighbors and their employers.  Similarly, she was waiting for Makar Sankranti (Bengali harvest festival) this year to eat her favourite pitha (a type of rice cake). She was also happy that she would get to wear new clothes after so long as her parents couldn’t afford to buy them regularly for her. Instead of a happy day, it was the day she experienced excruciating pain in her belly for the first time.



She was taken overnight to a bigger city hospital from her small village of Birbhum in West Bengal. It was there that she was diagnosed with germ cell tumor, a deadly tumor that begins in the ovaries and spreads to the entire abdomen. Priya needs 3 months of chemotherapy to survive.

“We took her to Bangalore by train the very next day he warned us. My poor child, who loved food so much and craved for sweets, has stopped eating completely now. As her belly is growing, she is losing weight rapidly as well,”-Phalguni  

All alone in a strange city and without her husband, this mother is struggling 

Phalguni and Priya had not visited any place from their village in all these years before they came to Bangalore for treatment. Her husband, Phuton, a daily wager, had to stay behind as he would lose his job if he were to take even a day’s leave. From day one, this mother-daughter duo has felt terrified by the hospital environment and people who speak languages that they don’t understand. Phalguni desperately asks people in nearby beds, “Tumi ki Bengali? (Are you Bengali?) hoping to find somebody, anybody, to share her woes with.  

“I don’t know anybody here. I don’t know their language and it is not easy to ask anything related to Priya’s treatment also. But more than this, I am worried because I don’t have enough money to save her from this deadly condition,”-Phalguni

How you can help

Priya’s father, Phuton, the breadwinner of the family, earns Rs 90 a day as a daily wager working on other’s farms. He has been able to arrange just Rs 60,000 for Priya’s treatment so far. He is struggling to arrange more money in West Bengal while Phalguni is struggling all by herself in Bangalore to console her daughter who is convinced that she is going to die.

Priya can get her happy old self and her childhood back with your kind contribution

Supporting document

The specifics of this case have been verified by the medical team at the concerned hospital. For any clarification on the treatment or associated costs, contact the campaign organizer or the medical team.

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