Dealing with cancer
Ruby quit her career to serve cancer patients.
When faced with a challenge, some
give up, while others see it as an opportunity for helping others. Ruby
Ahluwalia, now based in Goa, faced the challenge of being afflicted with breast cancer. When she completed all her sessions of chemotherapy, she visited her doctor and asked him about the next course of action. He knew there was nothing more that allopathy could offer, so he asked her to follow a healthy lifestyle by taking care of her body, mind, and spirit.
“At this time, combatting fear was uppermost on my mind,” she says. To divert her mind, she tried to focus on her creative talents, like painting and thought of helping others follow a healthy lifestyle. She saw very few organisations in the area of promoting a holistic lifestyle for cancer
‘Can Serve’
patients who had been through the rigours of chemotherapy. In 2012, her altruistic intention came to fruition with her starting a non-profit organisation, Sanjeevani—Life Beyond Cancer, which provides comprehensive cancer care pan India.
Starting with one city, Mumbai, Sanjeevani presently operates in 23 centres across 13 states in India and has worked with more than five lakh patients through its various flagship pro
grammes. The plan is to have Sanjeevani’s pres ence in at least one city of every state in India The impact studies done on the NGO’s vari ous programmes show encouraging outcomes. Sanjeevani believes that a disease like cancer presents multiple fronts for a cancer patient and that all of them need to be addressed for the prognosis of a patient to become positive. It strives to ensure that no patient feels alone in their journey of cancer and that no survivor lives a suboptimal life.
Sanjeevani is the only organisation which works across India on the complete spectrum of cancer care through long-term innovative solutions. Their flagship programmes are Can Chetana for prevention; Can Sahyogi for in-hospital patient assistance; Can Saarthi for skill development of cancer survivors and their relatives; Satori for strengthening immunity through nutrition, breath, and mental constructs to be able to manage the side effects of the treatment and reduce the chances of a relapse; and CanAhaar for nutritional supplements for poor patients.
Ruby has taken an early exit from her civil service career so that she can concentrate on her NGO and help others heal holistically.
- By Jamuna Rangachari