KOLKATA: A doctor, her husband and their six-year-old daughter will undertake a 40,000 km road trip covering 30 countries to make the people aware of the new medical concept of 'pain as a disease'.
On August 17, Dr Debanjali Roy, her husband Kausik and their daughter Diyasinee will drive their SUV from Chandannagar, West Bengal to travel through Nepal, Tibet entering central Asia and then to Europe, right up to the UK, before returning to Mumbai.
Automobile Association of Eastern India president and former transport minister Madan Mitra, French consul general in Kolkata Damien Syed and Federation of Indian Automobile Association president Nitin Dossa will flag off the transcontinental journey of the Roys.
Tour costs are staggering, and the couple is raising funds through crowd-funding. "The tour costs may reach `40 lakh. Though we have not yet found any sponsor, we hope to raise a portion of the amount through crowd-funding. Once we have started this tour, there will be no looking back," says Kausik.
It is Debanjali’s desire to spread public awareness about the concept of 'pain as a disease' that led to the Roy family plan the grand trip. An International Association for Study of Pain (IASP) fellow, Debanjali says the Association declared 2018 as the global year for excellence in pain education.
“We tend to suppress pain by taking medicines and forget it. But research has shown that pain is not just a symptom but ultimately it's a disease,” Debjani says. “So, instead of suppressing it with medicines, we need to find out the source of the pain which is why pain has become a separate subject now. All over the world, pain subject may soon be taught as professional medical degree."
The RG Kar Medical College alumnus says the IASP is urging doctors to make the people aware on pain education. “As a pain physician, I have to work hard to establish this subject. I plan to use the IASP guidelines of factsheets and lectures to make the people aware of 'pain as a disease',” she asserts.