BENGALURU: While we have heard stories about celebrity cancer survivors like Sonali Bendre or Yuvraj Singh, here is another story of a cancer survivor closer home. City-based Tanisha Dutta Roy has battled the first stage of salivary gland cancer and is now hoping to become the Mrs Indian Worldwide 2019, Haut Monde.
Thirty-five-year-old Roy from West Bengal moved to Bengaluru in 2001 for her higher studies and has since then, worked, got married and settled here too. While everything in life seemed to be great, her happiness was short-lived. Last year, in January, she was diagnosed with Pleomorphia Aedenoma, a type of salivary gland tumour, turning her world upside down.
The only positive news about her diagnosis was the fact that the tumour was benign. However, after a macro surgery in June, more bad news awaited Roy. “When the bioscopy was done, my tumour from benign had turned malignant. It was shocking. I had dreamt of travelling the world but when I got to know this, I was shattered,” she recalled.
After the surgery, doctors advised her to undergo radiations and chemotherapy for two months, leading to Roy gaining weight. The time was particularly difficult, more so because friends and family started to body-shame her. “I was happy when I put on weight. But when I was body-shamed, I felt bad. From 47 kg, I had reached 65 kg, but it didn’t matter. I wanted to be healthy so I started to work out from October 2018,” she said.
In three months, Roy returned to her old weight and to her delight, she got a call from the Haut Monde team to participate in the competition. “At first, I thought it was a fake call, but I did my research and registered. To my surprise, I did well in all three rounds: Introduction, question and answer, and talent round,” she said.
Roy didn’t just ace the rounds but also became one among 172 participants to be a part of the finals, chosen from among 30,000 participants from 20 different countries. The finals will now take place in October 2019 in Greece.