There are 2 ways to look at life right from our first cry. One, positively thinking that the first cry was to take a deep breath and have a healthy life and another one thinking in a dissenting approach thinking my life started with a cry symbolizing – ‘life is full of sorrows’. It is a narrow difference between both and it is very easy for anyone to cross the border despite being present in any side.
This cancer day, I was lost in the thought of pains in human life. My mind was muddled raising questions like – why this body with a few bones and nerves attract millions of different diseases? Why do diseases kill people and leave their loved ones with so much of distress etc. Especially my heart was restless thinking about people suffering from Cancer. Maybe because I have my dear ones suffering from cancer, but it was a restless hour for me.
My heart started asking questions on cancer and I was not able to stop myself from googling more about it. Only then I realized there are a lot of people who have survived from cancer. Had never seriously thought about it, but I found a lot of famous people who won this deadly disease. Be it is our own Yuvraj Singh or the Armstrong. Google gave me a handful of results with people who survived from cancer. I was taken by surprise when I learnt that people like Randy Pausch, Martin Crowe were also cancer survivors for long before they gave up the fight.
But, I found a pattern in those who survived. Each of them was rich and had all the power in the world to get the best treatment available. So, is the survival from cancer only for the rich? This was the next question that haunted me. I was sure that the answer is “No” but I wanted a proof. I wanted to know the names and life of common people who won cancer and that is when I found the name – Shruthi B S. Not many people would be familiar with this name or her bravery in winning a deadly disease.
A Brief about Shruthi
Shruthi is from Baaniga village of Hosanagara Taluk of Karnataka. She with her younger sister lived happily with her father and mother. She had completed her PUC education and had just joined Diploma course. It was that age she was living in where body and mind were filled with whole energy and every day in the life was seen in a different enthusiasm.
Shruthi could not believe what happened in her life after a she identified a small boil in her legs. The local doctor referred to Manipal hospital which is over 150 Kms away from her place. The intensity of doctor’s stress to take treatment in Manipal itself was frightening for them since going to Manipal for any treatment meant it is a serious issue for them. And the next shock was the scanning report in Manipal which read – “Osteosarcoma – cancer tumor in bone”!
Being from a small village, the girl and her family had no idea of what was required to save her from the jaws of pain and death. All they knew was it requires a huge amount of money to save her. When everything was going against her, something called ‘Hope’ was getting stronger and stronger within her. Somehow with the grace of god and help of good people, money was arranged for the treatments and she underwent numerous chemotherapies and finally she had come out of the strong clutches of death. It was her mental strength and her dad’s support which made her stay strong during 6 months of treatment and later too.
From identifying a boil in the leg to successfully completing series of chemotherapies, Shruthi had learnt a lot of things and she penned them down to a book – “Baduka Dikku Badalisida Osteosarcoma” meaning “Osteosarcoma that changed my life”. The book is an inspiration for each and every one. If someone feels completing a project by the deadline is the greatest challenge in life, there are people who have challenged death and won. The book is a must read for everyone to create awareness about cancer. The book will soon be released in English too. While if you are curious what Shruthi is doing right now, the answer is – “She is busy writing her next book”
After learning about her, the only thing that came to my mind was “Shruthi is no less than people like Yuvraj and Armstrong. She may not have achieved as much as they did, but she does deserve being an icon for people suffering from Cancer”
Paraphrase of Kannada article by Shivaprasad Bhat – “Yuvraj Singh Cancer Peeditharige Icon Aagodaadre Shruthi Yaakagbardu” meaning “If Yuvraj can be an Icon for cancer victims, so does Shruthi”
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