CHENNAI: Cancer is a disease with a rising curve in India. From diagnosis to treatment and cure, the process is nothing less than excruciating. When more than 65,000 children of the country are plunged into this vicious cycle of hardships every year, they have to confine their childhood to the walls of the hospital. The future is uncertain but the chances of recovery are high, yet most young patients lose hope during the process.
To resolve this issue and empower kids suffering from cancer, St Jude’s ChildCare Centre provides a home away from home for children undergoing cancer treatment. Anil Nair, CEO, St Jude’s ChildCare Centre speaks about providing free, safe, hygienic accommodation, basic education and holistic nutrition to needy, affected children travelling with their parents from rural, semi-urban areas to big cities to seek the best cancer treatment.
When did you establish your centre in Chennai?
In Chennai, St Jude has two centres — The MUFG Centre and Sir John Hanson Centre, which have been operational since July 2019. The first centre was formally inaugurated on November 26, 2019, and the second one in early 2020. While The MUFG Centre provides accommodation to 14 families, The Sir John Hanson Centre looks after 10 families. The children are being treated at four hospitals — Sri Ramachandra Medical College Hospital, Adyar Cancer Hospital, Apollo Cancer Hospital, and Institute of Child Health at Chennai. Rotary Club of Madras Temple City helped us to set up our Chennai centres and still helps us in running it.
How do you make kids comfortable during the treatment?
Cancer treatment is also about providing a comfortable lifestyle where they can adjust and give time to the healing process. So, our primary objective is to keep providing a clean, hygienic place to stay. We see a lot of patients from rural areas of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, and so on. We don’t want kids picking up infections as their immunity level is low. We provide them with proper nutrition and the body will be able to bear the heavy drugs that are injected. We provide their rations on a weekly basis and establish a cooking station for each family that stays with us.
How can people avail of your treatment?
The children availing treatment from us are from smaller towns and villages across India. Currently there are 492 patients. They all are either undergoing free or highly subsidised treatment at the hospitals mentioned earlier. The hospital refers these patients to us. We take children younger than 15 years of age. They stay with us from six to eight months during the initial phase, which is also the intensive treatment. And then over the next couple of years, they probably come in once in three or four months, depending on their follow-up treatment protocol. The children and their families can contact the hospitals to connect with us.
How do you offer support for education?
A child undergoing treatment essentially misses a minimum of one year of education. Young children of five years who had just begun their education suddenly jump to a halt. We found that most of the children are reluctant to go back because they feel like they are lagging behind their batchmates. We are very keen that they go back to school once they are done with the treatment. So we try and keep them engaged in the curriculum, especially English, Maths and Science. Through our team of teachers and volunteers, we make sure that each kid doesn’t miss out.
Can we cure cancer in kids if diagnosed early ?
Cancer in kids is highly curable. In fact, 80-85 per cent of children actually recover from cancer in India, since we have high-quality drugs and the best doctors. The important thing to remember is that paediatric cancer is different from adult cancer. So the kind of treatment and the protocol to be followed are different.
So I think it’s important for parents to have the courage to undergo treatment and they should not forego treatment due to any financial restrictions. There are a lot of stigmas attached to both poverty and cancer. So more hospitals and medical institutions should take up the initiative to provide free treatment to the struggling families and organisations like ours will be there to amplify the support.