CPAA - Overcoming Cancer & Bringing Hope into their Lives

Sufala gifts a rose – a symbol of hope - to this young boy

Veena Gaikwad cheers up a patient with gifts and smiles 

Roses and gift packs for each patient on the occasion of Rose Day 

An Awareness and Detection Camp in progress

Team Miracle helps CPAA’s ‘Make a Patient Smile’ program with our very own Musical Group

22 Dec, 2011. Although 5-year old Deepak* sat quietly in his mother’s lap, it was evident that he was enjoying the Christmas Party. His eyes followed the Musical Chairs, and his face lit up when Santa gave him sweets and a brightly-wrapped gift. Deepak had been discharged just an hour ago from hospital, after a long chemo session. He was supposed to be going straight home, but he had heard his father saying on the phone, ‘Sorry madam, party nahi aa sakta’. He immediately understood that CPAA was organizing a party, and, having attended their lively get-togethers earlier, he had stubbornly insisted on coming to this one. So even though Deepak was so exhausted, his father had given in.

As for us, we were happy that the little boy was there. We didn’t know it then…it was his last Christmas party!

Celebrating special days like Diwali, Christmas, or Women’s Day is just one of the ways for CPAA to spread some smiles among the cancer patients who come to them for help. CPAA (Cancer Patients Aid Association) which first started in Mumbai, followed up with a branch in Pune. The patients they help, come from the lowest socio-economic strata of society – daily wage labourers, vegetable/fruit sellers, maids etc. As it is, life is difficult for them – meager wages, insufficient holidays, no savings. And when cancer strikes, they are at a total loss. While there are days when they barely manage a proper nutritious meal, the costs of  treatment are prohibitive! It is here that they turn to CPAA for help.

CPAA helps these poor patients with medicines, money for treatment, and also with monthly supplies of grains and certain dry food items to provide some nutrition. Sanjivani who has had a breast removed needs a prosthesis; Bhau who now has a mechanical voice box cannot afford the special cleaning brush. Sometimes, a patient may just need a few pain-killers.

Maharukh Mehta, who heads the Pune office is forever juggling finances in such a way that no patient is turned away empty-handed. She is helped tirelessly by social workers Sumangala, Veena, Najiya, Sufala and Asha who try to get in more donors, visit patients and also hold Awareness & Detection Camps.

The work is arduous… and when they lose a patient, the mood in the office becomes grey and bleak. “There are times when we call up a patient to invite her/him for a party, and learn that he has just passed away! It feels terrible,” says Maharukh.

Not all cases are doomed. Many of them recover. 5-year-old Sumaiya’s leukaemia has been subdued, and for that, we also thank one of our Team Miracle helpers, Tenaz, who had partly funded her treatment.

Would you like to save a life? Would you like to give some hope? Even a little goes a long way. Life is not in our hands…and even if the patient you fund finally passes away, you can at least find solace that your gift gave a longer lease of life…or a less painful end. There are many more avenues to help …just get in touch with Team Miracle…and we will open a vista of ways to spread kindness and create smiles!

* Name changed

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THE ONLY SURVIVOR

Missed death by a Whisker - Paraplegic Soban  Singh

He is a paraplegic, but his arms and torso are still powerful as he pushes his wheelchair swiftly towards us. The strength, determination, discipline and training are evident, even at 58, and his only regret is “All my contemporaries are now Subedar-Majors. I would have been one too, if not for this injury.”

Given the severe nature of his spinal cord injuries, Soban Singh will never become a Subedar-Major, but he is much more than that – he is a war hero, who has survived one of the most horrifying attacks that warfare can inflict.

“It was 15 October, 1988. I was then 26 and posted in Sri Lanka, as part of the IPKF’s Operation Pawan. Our Major had discovered some weapons in a village and we were ordered to carry out a search-and-capture for suspected terrorists. We were traveling in two 3-ton Shaktiman trucks. I was in the last one with five others, and we were laughing and joking as we sped along the roads. Suddenly there was a huge explosion!”

When Soban Singh recovered consciousness nine days later, he was in a hospital in Chennai (where he had been air-lifted). His first thought was “Where are my legs?” he looked down and saw them there, but couldn’t feel anything, except terrible pain all over his body.

He became unconscious again, only waking up in a hospital in Pune after a month. From others he heard the details of what had happened that fateful day. “Our truck had been blown up by a landmine so powerful, that the vehicle was flung more than 35 feet in the air. All my five other companions had been blown to bits (their body parts had to be gathered up in blankets). I was the only survivor, but the doctors had not much hope because of the extent of injuries. My stomach was ruptured, my head was broken, my ribs shattered, and I had to be kept alive with an oxygen tank. Most important, my spine was shattered, paralyzing me completely below the waist.”

It was the thought of his wife and three young children which (and yes, his physical strength and determination) which kept him fighting for his life. After three years in hospital, three years of healing and rigorous physio-therapy, Soban Singh was transferred to the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre. He lives there, going to his native Nainital once in two years. “My village is in a remote area, and the hilly terrain makes it difficult to negotiate on a wheelchair.”

These brave jawans do not talk about their difficult life – a life lived on a wheelchair, but let me tell you in short what it means to be paraplegic

Injury to the spinal cord causes loss of  sensation and control, not just in the limbs, but also in areas such as bowel and bladder control, sexual function, digestion, breathing and other functions. Because their limbs do not function, and they cannot move their body normally like the rest of us, they are prone to pressure (bed) sores, spasms, frozen joints, osteoporosis and fractures. Because their lungs do not function properly, they cannot cough out phlegm, and even a simple cold can lead to pneumonia and breathing complications. Because their hearts lose muscle power, they are prone to cardio-vascular disease.  Since emptying their bladders regularly is a problem (and is done lifelong using a catheter) they are prone to urinary tract infection, and kidney failure.

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Mamta Joshi – Pillar of Support

Mamta Joshi - a font of energy and goodwill

Whenever we send out an appeal for funds for a special occasion, I know that Mamta’s is one of the first voices I’ll hear on the phone, pledging her support to the current cause.

When we needed sponsors for the ‘street-children’s lunch’  looked after by Sarva Seva Sangh, Mamta stepped forward with alacrity. Another time, it was for sponsoring a musician. On other occasions it has been sponsoring gift items for the care-givers at the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre, sweets for a programme, lunch for the children at Maher or prizes for the Sportsday at PRC. Mamta is always the first person to e-mail or call back with a re-assuring offer.

And it’s not just the financial help. If Mamta is in town, I can rest assured, she’ll volunteer her time to accompany me - to our various programs, for our gifts-and-prize-buying-trips. She has built up a wonderful rapport with the soldiers at PRC, many of whom are from the same native place, and they look forward to chatting with her.

For a person who packs in so much travel within and outside the country’s borders, this is a tremendous feat indeed, and I feel so elated when she sends me a mail from Florida or New York (as the case may be) with a ‘Mita, count me in’! Her way of celebrating her children’s birthdays and other festivals is to sponsor a treat at any of these organizations we help out. 

It was my daughter Chandana (who was then working at TMTC) who first introduced Mamta to me, as the ‘wonderful lady in charge of the library’. We lost touch after that, but it was Mamta who found us again, and in her unobtrusive but firm manner became such an integral part of Team Miracle.

Mamta has a fairly busy schedule between her family and profession. A librarian, she has the daunting task of setting up libraries for various corporate houses. She also keeps her two children (in the USA) happy with frequent visits. And in between, she has her various welfare activities. Being a part of Team Miracle is just one of them.

Thank you Mamta for being such a pillar of support…and such a source of positive energy!

A Way of Life : Col Ashish Dasgupta and Sima Dasgupta

Col Ashish Dasgupta and Sima Dasgupta with their little dog Jooni

He is a former Sapper officer, with a basketful of hair-raising tales of terrorist attacks and narrow escapes, as he completed numerous daunting tasks of road-building in the mountainous Kashmir area. She is the quintessential Army wife, all hospitality and smiling charm, even in the most difficult situations, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her husband, and facing the terrorists’ bullets with courage.

Our nearly-two decades of friendship began first with our respective daughters, but even when they married and moved on, we continued…our friendship growing stronger with the passing years. Theirs is a family which is exuberant in its celebration of life. Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and any festival becomes an occasion for music, dance and a bountiful spread on the table, where everyone is welcome.

But ever-present under this cheerful exterior is the other side of their personalities – the sensitivity to the pain of others, the philanthropy, the caring and sharing, the sense of giving back, not just to society at large, but especially to the brave soldiers, whose fraught-with-danger lives they shared for so many years.

Both Col Ashish Dasgupta (or ‘Ashishda’ as I call him) and Sima have been pillars of support for our Team Miracle activities. And just like their marriage, their ‘helping styles’ reflect a perfect teamwork. While Sima plunges in at the ‘micro’ level, Col Dasgupta takes a ‘macro’ attitude.

PRC (Paraplegic Rehab Centre) needs fans? Gifts for the attendants? Nutritious diet items for the poor cancer patients at CPAA (Cancer Patients Aid Association)? As I send out an appeal, Sima is one of the first to respond, with a generosity and amount that never fails to stagger me.

As for Col Dasgupta … I am amazed at his zeal in spreading the word and motivating others to donate to our cause. Retirement has not stopped him from doing the job he loves so much – building good roads – although it’s now in the civilian sector. And as he works as a Senior Consultant Engineer in prestigious road-construction projects, he has been instrumental in collecting huge amounts of donation funds for Team Miracle’s activities.

When PRC needed a Desktop Printer-cum-Scanner worth Rs 25,000, I’d never imagined we’d be able to raise that kind of money. But a word to Ashishda …and in a week’s time, the device was perched in the office of PRC. He had motivated two young contractors (brothers) to do the needful. And it was Col Dasgupta who helped Team Miracle collect a record-breaking Rs 1 lakh for PRC’s corpus fund. It speaks highly of the respect he commands in the Organisation he now works for !

This is just Part I of the' Dasgupta Family Saga'. Sima and Ashishda have, by their own examples, been a source of inspiration and motivation for their children, and now the Generation Next, including their children and respective spouses are fervent members of Team Miracle, bringing in newer ways for us to reach out. But that calls for another chapter later! 

Till then...thank you both, for the important role you play at Team Miracle!

BLOWN SKY HIGH - Naik Dharamveer Singh

Naik Dharamveer Singh

26 February, 1996. On this fateful day, Naik Dharamveer Singh’s life was to change for ever. Tall, broad-shouldered, and a tough and fearless soldier, on that day he became a paraplegic.

Dharamveer Singh (then 31) was posted in a forward area of Nagaland, which was going through turbulent times of insurgency. “We called it Operation Orchid. The situation was so dangerous, that all our folks always travelled under heavy armed escort, even our school-going children. Every day, our school buses would leave camp in a convoy, with armed vehicles in the front and back. I was in the last truck, and thankfully, all the vehicles had gone by safely, when the insurgents activated a remote-controlled IED, hidden under a culvert. The blast was so powerful that (I was told later) our heavy 7-ton Shaktiman truck was flung 30 feet off the ground and blown to bits. Some of the jawans in the vehicle were killed instantaneously, a few died in hospital. I was the only survivor, but with my D8 and D9 spinal bones crushed beyond repair, I became paralysed below the waist.”

Dharamveer was first taken to the hospital at Dimapur, from where he was transferred to the Command Hospital. After a couple of weeks he was taken to CH at Lucknow. While his strong constitution and sheer willpower helped, it still took him three years to recover somewhat from the injuries, but it would take another two years at the Spinal Cord Injury Centre at MH Khadki, before he could be shifted to the Paraplegic Rehab Centre on 31 May 2001.

For these five years, his family remained in his hometown at Kurukshetra, where his wife brought up their three small children single-handedly. Dharamveer Singh spent these five years in hospital undergoing rigorous physio-therapy, learning how to activate the other nerves and muscles in his body to help him cope with the loss of movement and sensation below the waist – how to sit up in a chair, how to transfer himself from a chair to a bed or to a toilet seat, how to control his bowel and bladder, and yes, also to reconcile himself to spending the rest of his life on a wheelchair.

He still considers himself lucky to be alive as he says, “All my other colleagues died in the blast!”

He pauses gravely before adding, “I’m glad that the children were safe, that nothing happened to them.” These our brave jawans who put the safety of others before their own, who guard our borders, our children and families even to the extent of giving up their lives. Some, like Dharamveer, miss death by a whisker, but suffer injuries so serious, that they remain confined to a wheelchair for the rest of their lives.

Those paralysed below the waist are referred to as paraplegics – both lower limbs paralysed and no bladder and bowel control.

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A Fairy Godmother with a Magic Wand

Ritu Chawla, General Manager of Courtyard by Marriott Chakan motivates the girls from Sarva Seva Sangh to join the hotel industry 

At the Paraplegic Rehab Centre, Ritu along with her associates, personally serves our bravehearts

Ritu Chawla, GM Courtyard Marriott, Chakan, keeps surprising me. This Diwali, it took her just a few minutes to decide that the hotel would arrange a celebratory lunch for Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre. She came in person, bringing an entire team from the hotel to serve the delicious biryani and halwa, and then she insisted on helping her team, and personally served the soldiers.

Ritu has certainly turned my ideas – of being Big Boss - upside down. She’s shown what it means to be a leader. Being a leader means actually doing it yourself, being a role model that juniors can emulate.

When I asked her why she readily agreed to help with Team Miracle and help PRC, her answer was simple, “It was in line with our Marriott ‘Spirit to Serve’ philosophy.”

But why bring such a large team, when they already had so much work at the hotel?

“I run a hotel with a large team of Gen Y associates. I believe our hotel lives are full of glamour and luxury, and we often fail to see the reality, and remain grounded. Bringing the young team to PRC, I believe, would give them that necessary motivation as well help them stay grounded.”

But, just sponsoring a meal is not enough for this dynamic lady who looks upon Sudha Murty as a person worthy of emulating, “I would like to be involved with initiatives that have a long-term focus,  that will help build livelihoods – be it for the young, but not-so-lucky youth, or for women groups.”

With this in view, she invited youngsters from Sarva Seva Sangh to the hotel, took them on a guided tour, and then offered them free training in various departments. Then she added another surprise – a stipend of Rs 4,000 during the training period!

And how does Ritu celebrate special occasions? When she heard that Sarva Seva Sangh provided hot mid-day meals to around 40 street-children every day, she found joy in sponsoring a special meal for the entire lot, on her father’s birthday.

Ritu has a whole lot of unusual and interesting helping ideas up her sleeve, and I am only waiting for her to surprise us again and again. Team Miracle is proud to have you on board Ritu!

Ritu’s philosophy: Contribute your best skills, take initiative and make everything count.

Ritu’s New Year resolution: From being just another passive corporate social service provider, to become a personal contributor.

A Child with a Golden Heart

Aliyah with her Mom and Dad - a family with the right values

Let me introduce you all to Aliyah Kuvawala, 12, a student of Std VII. Aliyah is a great swimmer, and has won many competitions. But for me, she is unique, because of her keen interest in helping the under-privileged.

Four years ago, when she was just eight, and could barely understand the concept, Aliyah helped us collect bundles of newspapers as part of our fund-raising activities for CPAA (Cancer Patients Aid Association). She went round to each flat in her society, urging the residents to donate their old papers to help the poor patients who didn’t have enough money for treatment. The earnest little girl must have made a strong impact, because the result was a sizeable collection.

But it’s what Aliyah has done now that I find truly amazing! A week ago, she was invited for a ceremony by a Rotary Club. They wanted to felicitate a few children achievers - in her case, it was swimming. Aliyah came home with a goodies-bag, which contained (to her surprise) a cheque for Rs 3,000.

“Wow, I can buy a swimming costume,” was her first reaction.

“Well, we’ve always got those for you, so you can buy anything else you want with it,” said her mother Moushumi and Father Moiz.

“In that case, I’d like to donate the money for a cause,” came the swift reply.

Next day, the money was handed over to me, neatly packed in an envelope!

At Team Miracle, we were in the process of collecting money for Sarva Seva Sangh, to fund their Mid-day meals for street-children. They also have about a hundred children in their shelters, whom they educate, and they needed essentials like lunch-boxes.

Moushumi, a Manual Physiotherapist, has always been an active member of Team  Miracle. While it was she who had encouraged Aliyah to take up the newspaper-collection drive, she also helps generously with our children-related activities. When we decided to have a Christmas-party for cancer-affected kids in a hospital, Moushumi funded some goodies. When we expressed a desire to take fruits on a weekly basis to the children in Maher, Moushumi sponsored the amount.

Not for nothing do they say, “Don’t worry that your children don’t listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” In this case, Aliyah has certainly watched her parents closely, and picked up good values from them.

We wish this generous family all the best!