Cinema was the medium that created the impression that cancer is incurable, said Kollywood comedy actor Vivek in a function to celebrate Rose Day organised by Paterson Cancer Center on Sunday.
Highlighting that wrong notion that movies had created among the mass, the actor said that though many movies that have been based on cancer were a huge success in the box office, in reality the disease only brings a lot of fear. “I myself have delivered a dialogue in a movie that it is movies that create the impression that cancer is incurable,” he said in the function jointly organised with Cancer Alleviation Foundation and Cancer Patients Aid Association.
The actor recalled some of his personal encounters with cancer patients — including his dialogue writer, who wrote some of his popular lines in Tamil cinema and died of pancreatic cancer. He also mentioned a wife of a doctor in Malaysia, who survived a little longer than the time doctors had predicted.
“The doctors it seems had told her to watch my comedy scenes as therapy. She survived for more than two years instead of the few months that doctors had said,” the actor recalled and encouraged the patients present to live with hope, courage and laughter. He also advised them to live without any fear.
“There are film actors like Mamta Mohandas, Manisha Koirala, international model Lisa Ray and cricketer Yuvaraj Singh who have fought cancer and have recovered,” he said. Rose Day, which is celebrated in memory of 12-year-old Melinda Rose From Canada, who was diagnosed with Askin’s tumor, a rare form of blood cancer, is dedicated to those battling cancer across the world. Apart from gifting roses, the actor also presented utility kits that had toiletries and others gifts to cancer patients.
SB Khanthan, Creative Director, XL Hensz, Dr V Kannan, Prof and HOD, Dept of Oncology, Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai, K Gurumurthy, Director, PCC and Dr S Vijayaraghavan of PCC were also present at the function.