What happens when a doctor tells you about a terrible disease that is not so common?
do you panic, do you call your family and friends ?
You might do both, but one thing that certainly happens is that you will google about it to gather as much information about it as possible, in most cases people would believe the first link that they would stumble upon.
Many of them are just too dazed after they hear the word cancer that after that whatever the doctors is just a blur, this was portrayed brilliantly in a movie 50-50 which was based on a true story, which has the same starting when the man told that he had cancer he was just dazed and the first thing he did was check on that what kind of cancer he had along with the chances which were 50-50.
Now imagine stumbling on a link has data over 9 years old, in a country like India where support groups and cancer related activities do not find a good amount of activities or resources and people who have cancer related diseases are usually left to fight their battles on their when the time requires them to be along with families and friends to be with people who have either went through such ordeal or going through it where they can share tips and advice.
The one story of a man who was given 2 years by one of such sites with old data is of Rahul Yadav who decided to not to just sit back and call it his fate but try to do something about it.
Something similar happened to Rahul Yadav who felt was at that between jobs when he consulted a doctor and got his reports which dealt him a huge blow
Rahul was diagnosed in August 2013, with an incurable and rare form of Cancer called Myeloma, and he too decided to go to the internet like many others like him on the internet which gave him a statistic which gave him a survival rate of 2 years but then, he soon realized that the data given on that site was about 9years old and medical science has improved from then.
He then decided to do something rather than sit back and lament on his situation, he soon realised that the support groups that could be found so easily internationally were hard to find in India from there he started a small group which would help each other out, share tips, diet plans and people would not feel alone.
He then started a Yoddas group a year back which has received support from friends and various social groups and as of now they have 2000 plus supporters in Pune and Delhi.
His University for example university Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and its social arm the Pranay team has been helping the group a lot.
Here’s what he describes as the 2 main goals of the group “We have two major goals – the primary and the most essential goal is to support yoddhas battling cancer and helping each other. Peer to peer support. As at times, the best person to help you with something is someone who has gone through this on his own or is going through it right now.
The second major goal is to spread awareness about important issues like the idea of a Bone Marrow Registry in India. This part is critical and we have started to reach out to campuses across India. We have currently less than 0.1 million registered donor as compared to the world’s over 25 million ”
The group has been very successful and since it has been a crown funded initiative it has been able to generate more and more people to join them and spread the word, they have also received UNESCO Citizen Youth Entrepreneurship competition in 2014 they won the People’s Choice award and also the overall Second Prize. The only entry to be representing India and also the only entry that received 2 awards.
For long people have been shying away from accepting the fact that has to be lot apart from just the medical science for a person health to improve, it’s not that once they get chemotherapy sessions done they would get okay need that motivation, they need that positivity to be able to get that support that one requires in this time and not worry about and stress about other things that he had planned in his life. They need to be able to feel the hope that everything’s going to be alright and they will get well and that would help them get through this.
“Rahul went through 15 cycles of chemotherapy per month and will be having his stem cell transplant right now and for anyone who might know even 1 cycle per 20 days can cause side effects, he had developed stones in his gall bladder which were removed, since then he has maintained a healthy lifestyle, and it was this hope that helped him sail through it.”
Tweet using #Yspreadhappiness and spread awareness about this group, help them grow and reach people who as of now are cursing their lifes.