P Satish Kumar – Andhra Pradesh, 2011
My name is Satish and I am from Pedda Reddy Peta of Medak District. Mine is a small family comprising of my mother, father and brother.
My father is a farmer. I studied till intermediate and used to help my father in agricultural field. All was fine. Everyone was happy. Exactly, six years back i.e. in 2006, when I fell sick due to fever for one month, I lost 15kgs weight. There was a gland in the stomach. When I visited near by town for medication, I was given medicines for relief from fever and for gaining weight. They couldn’t diagnose the problem. When I was becoming weak day by day, my family members thought it would be a viral fever which might get reduced through the given medicines. When the fever was persistent, I consulted Doctor Manohar of Hyderabad who has done blood tests and confirmed the presence of blood cancer. I and my family members were shocked to know it. We all used to sit back crying. When I and my father went to the doctor for knowing about the treatment to be followed, doctor replied that it would cost in lakhs for treating this disease, and he referred us to Doctor Chandra Sekhar. My father is a farmer and we belong to the BPL category.
We are not financially well enough to afford the treatment. So we decided to return home. But we thought before that we should consult the cancer specialist Doctor Chandra Sekhar. There the doctor has gone through my blood test reports and said that it is CML disease and is related to blood. He enquired about our details and said that you can’t afford for the treatment. But he also said that medicines for this disease are given free of cost for poor people and he referred us to NIMS Hospital. Till today and for all time I will be grateful to Dr Chandra Sekhar for guiding us to NIMS .Soon after, we rushed to NIMS Hospital and met Doctor Raghunadhrao. Doctor explained to us about the disease and told us that Novartis and the Max Foundation is giving free medicines for B.P.L families. He said that he will inform when our application gets approval. We felt happy on hearing these words. As told by doctor, we applied with our white ration card. Within few days after the application, there was a phone call inviting us to take medicines. It is only because of Max Foundation and Novartis, I am living happy today.
Thanks for Vijju Madam who is touring all round the state to support cancer patients like me and is eradicating the fear by bringing awareness to cancer patients. Thanks also for all the staff working in Max Foundation.