Life is not easy for anyone, for some it is little less
tough, for some it is little tougher, for some it is even more tough. It has
everything from hope to pessimism, from happiness to sadness, form success to
failure, from excitement to anxiety and it applies to every living human being, but there are few people who have to give the toughest challenge in their lives
at different points of time to end up becoming a complete person and symbol of
hope and courage. Despite all these odds these people make it big in life and
become an inspiration for the rest. They conquer all the challenges life throws
towards them with the guts and all the power they have and end up laughing over
those challenges. This journey make them such a strong person that they become
almost immune to any challenge life throws towards them in future. We get to
hear about some of these old stories, but many of these stories go unnoticed for reasons even I am not sure
of. One such story is of a young Mumbai girl Kanchan Daniel. I came to know about her
story through Facebook few days back and decided to go through it in detail. I
contacted her on Twitter and thankfully she agreed to share some information related
with her journey through a deadly cancer at such a young age of 17.
Her Story:
She had just completed her 12th standards exams and
was ready to move into a college for a new beginning when one day she got some severe pain in her
thigh followed by fever. After checking with family doctor and doing some tests
the saddest news of her life came to haunt her and her family. Tests showed a 4
KG tumor inside her, after the few more checkups it was clear that she had 3rd
stage Dysgerminoma Cancer. When the family discussed with Doctor about seriousness of
Cancer, doctor replied with a 0% chance of survival. At this moment any person
can go down and lose the hope but only question she asked to doctor was “Will I
lose my hair?” In her words “From the very beginning I didn't allow cancer to
get the better of me - if anything, cancer was always playing a losing game
with me. Since the time I was diagnosed with a 0% survival chance, I had made
up my mind that I would defeat it. I did lose my hair, so I called a barber
home and shaved it all off and proceeded to mock myself in front of others as
'egghead' - I never allowed cancer to make me a victim. I've always called
myself a 'shameless cancer patient' because I would just laugh things off and
embrace them as an experience - but I think that's the only thing that got me
out of it. “
After all those extremely irritating and painful cycle of
treatments, she finally conquered it with her head held high. It increased her
confidence even more. After getting better and bit healthier she did study clinical
psychology just to help the young teens who are suffering from menace of
Cancer. As per her the biggest contribution this battle with cancer has done to
her is that it made her incline towards singing so that she can express herself
in better way. She formed the band “Kanchan Daniel & The Friends” and
became lead singer of her own band. This band is now known as Kanchan Daniel
and the Beards and has all young members.Now a days her band keeps doing live shows regularly and she has won many fans with her lovely voice.
Excerpts from Some Q & A With her over Email :
Q. What was your first reaction when you heard that chances of
survival was 0%?
A. I took everything in my stride. From the first time I got to know that I may not make ,I never did the whole why me or never pitied myself or my condition because the only aim and direction that I had decided to take was to beat cancer.
Q. Who was always there next to you supporting you like solid pillar?
A. My family has been my pillar of strength. And not just my immediate family, my entire family from all over the world
Q. Did you find any negative person too around you at that time? How did you avoid their negativity?
A. Yes i did. There were people and still are people who dont
understand the depth and gravity of what cancer can put you through. There were
people who would say stupid things such as cancer is contagious and a few who
had already deemed me dead.I didnt let their negativity to me firstly because
their opinion didn’t matter and secondly because my bigger battle was with life
itself and I was busy too busy fighting that one.
Q. What is one must do and one must not do for anyone suffering
from Cancer?
A. The one thing that one must do is to keep the utmost positive atmosphere around a cancer patient because it is also a part of healing process for both a patient and the family.
What one must not do around the cancer patient is victimize them. People don’t need to hear " why me " around them all the time. It does nothing to boost ones morale and fighting spirit. Try and maybe empathize even though it may be hard to truly understand what one goes through while fighting a disease like cancer.
Q. Does the age matter for anyone suffering from Cancer?
A. Cancer does not differentiate between the young and the
old.
Q. What was the first thing you did after getting cured and moving out of home totally fit?
Q. What was the first thing you did after getting cured and moving out of home totally fit?
A. I decided to study clinical psychology and simultaneously
music happened to me.
Q. Which journey has been better? 17 years of Life before
cancer diagnosis or Life post cancer treatment?
A. Definitely post cancer. I never regret it. It’s made me who and what I am today.I am thankful for it because it turned my life around.
To end the this story of Cancer "Fighter" Kanchan in her own words -I went through 3 chemo sessions, 8 surgeries and a million complications at the age of 17 -- but I won the battle, only because I was shameless enough to laugh at it rather than giving it the power to be life threatening.
Credits : All pics credit to Kanchan's Twitter feed @KanchanDaniel1 and some of excerpts have been taken from her discussion with "Humans of Bombay" Facebook group.