The Cancer-curbing Bus is Here
Still spoken of in hushed tones and feared as a worst-case medical scenario, cancer has truly become the modern-day emperor of all maladies. Yet for some patients, fighting the disease can provide the impetus for doing wondrous things. Such is the case with German artist and breast cancer survivor, Shadi Ganz.
The former Harley Street psychotherapist has found her calling in Mammomobile, the charity she founded in 2012 to increase access to mammography equipment in South India. In April this year, her charity will roll out its first screening centre on wheels in the Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu.
While breast cancer is most common in women above the age of 50, Ganz found her first lump at the age of 39, while living in Cape Town, South Africa. Travelling back to Berlin for treatment, she was told that the lump she had was malignant. Despite being given the all-clear, her cancer resurfaced a decade later during routine checkups.
“Both times I was extremely lucky, in that it was caught very early and I was able to receive treatment. The chances of a full recovery are so much higher in those cases,” says Ganz. When her husband was posted to Bengaluru in 2012, she relocated to India while still recovering from the second bout of cancer. “I was still fighting it when I arrived here. Because of that, the desire to take action was very strong,” she explains.
One of Ganz’s first ports of call was at the WIA Cancer Institute in Chennai, where she met its president Dr V Shanta. At the institute, she saw women queuing right out onto the street to be seen at the hospital, some of whom had travelled as far as 400 km.
“I’d already made up my mind that I wanted to fundraise, but first I wanted to find out what it was that they most needed,” says Ganz. “What Dr Shanta said, and what was so evident, was that they needed buses to take the equipment out to women in rural areas, so that they could be diagnosed early.” Germany has over 80 screening buses, and Ganz was shocked to discover that there were no such mobile facilities available in South India at that point.
It was then that she decided to start a foundation that would fill this gap. Thus began Mammomobile which, nearly three years and `50 lakh later, is on the verge of rolling out its first screening centre on wheels.
Ganz managed to raise over half-a-crore through innovative fundraising methods. Harnessing her own talents to help the drive, Ganz channeled all the proceeds from the sale of her paintings for the last two years into the foundation’s coffers. “Using art for a social cause is a very natural synergy because ultimately artists want to express themselves, and to find something beyond the painting itself,” she explains. Aside from her own work, Ganz and her team of seven dedicated volunteers were able to bring on board the Progressive Art Gallery in Delhi, which donated originals and limited edition prints from art legends like M F Husain, Ram Kumar Verma, F N Souza and Seema Kholi. These were auctioned at Mammomobile’s star-studded fundraising event, held last September in Bengaluru. “I was absolutely overwhelmed by the support that we received, and we raised around `20 lakh,” shares Ganz. “We hope to do something similar in Chennai in 2015,” she adds.
The focus right now is on the flagship first bus, which is being constructed in Belgavi in Karnataka. It will be launched in collaboration with WIA Institute, Chennai, and staffed with nurses and a trained radiologist, it will cover the Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu. The trust hopes to fund more buses across different districts in Tamil Nadu, and is currently looking to partner with NGO hospitals in Karnataka.
With her single-minded focus and a growing army of contributors and supporters, Ganz dreams of running such buses across India. “I’d like to think of myself as more than a survivor as people feel pity for you when they hear the word cancer. I am a fighter, which is lot more positive, and now I’m fighting for others as well,” she beams.