We have often heard people saying, “Anything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” But it is only easy to make a statement like that but hard to live with. When death comes too close, when people around you lose hope, when they have that look of helplessness in their face, when prayers and faint hope only can lift you up from the pool of negatives and sad things around you, life can be challenging as Hell. It will push you to extremes. Put you down on your knees, and if you listen to its orders and bend, it will beat you down black and blue and eventually leave you. That’s why death can be scary and painful. But on the contrary, if you stand rowing against the tides, swimming against the currents and be a wall to all problems nothing can stop you and nothing can take away the zeal to live from you. Not even Cancer!!!
Yes, Cancer can be deadly, it can be painful, but if you can cling on to life and be strong mentally you can win over it. The best treatment, medication, strong will power, support from family and friends has proven to be the solution to manage and get over Cancer. One such inspirational story is that of Shruthi B.S.
Shruthi hails from Baniga village of Hosanagara Taluk in Shivamogga District. Dad, mom, and younger sister were her beautiful and simple family. In 2008 she completed her 12th and she joined a computer Diploma course in Sagara. She was just 18 then. An age where most of us dream of doing great things, try and work to realize them and think of too many things. It can be considered as the golden time of a person’s life. We all evolve from there. Shruthi also had her set of dreams. Education, hostel life and time spent with her friends were great. Unknowingly she was making memories; she was growing a bond with her new life. But incidentally so was the cist growing on her legs. She overlooked at it for a few days, but the growing cist brought along with it unbearable pain. And on a fateful day, it took the suffering to the next level where she had to finally consult a doctor.
This visit to the doctor changed her life. She had gone to him from her hostel, she hadn’t known that that would be the last day she would be living there. The doctor knew that something was terribly wrong, probably the reports had read “Sarcoma.” Shruthi had seen the report, she was not too foreign to that word. She had studied Biology in her 11th and 12th , and the concept of cell mutation and replication had somewhere explained Sarcoma, but she was not able to recollect what it really meant. She was asked to visit Manipal, one of the most noted hospitals in Karnataka. And she did it. The reports of examination there read OsteoSercoma or in other words Bone cancer!!
Shocking isn’t it? It was shocking even for the 18-year-old teen Shruthi as well. All her dreams and ambitions were shattered into pieces. But then she was a strong girl. She was a determined individual who challenged death. Her parents, friends, and family stood with her. They gave her the moral support that she needed. The best doctors in Manipal treated her. Chemotherapy only made her strong. With every sitting of Chemo, she started becoming stronger. The cancer had to leave her. But yes when it left her it also left her a gift. Shruthi’s life had seen a transformation. She was mentally stronger than ever before. She started exploring more about her passion for writing. She has written a book on her journey with cancer. It is titled “Osteosarcoma that changed my life.” This book has a foreword written by a 2-time cancer survivor and the recipient of Don’t Ever Give Up Award presented by the Jimmy V Foundation and ESPN. He lauds Shruthi for her wittiness in her journey and her inner strength. This book summarizes her experiences in life and her fight with Cancer. These are the stories which stand as an example of the magnitude of things that the greatest of Human strengths, Willpower can do. Her experiences are available for a read and purchase at Amazon. Start reading it for free at http://amzn.to/2cZ2k9z
Finally, before I Finish, these are the lines which I remember from the epic Hollywood Movie Rocky Balboa starring Sylvester Stallone. These words are far beyond being just a movie dialogue but define life in the best way. It goes like this
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!” –Sylvester Stallone
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