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Childhood cancers have a high success rate, provided the kids are supported by an infection-free and cheerful environment along with timely treatment. St. Judes offers this opportunity to every child patient irrespective of their economic status.
N
ihal Kaviratne returned to India in 2005 after spending 22 years abroad in various countries with Unilever. He retired as the senior vice president of Unilever. He and his wife, Shyama Kaviratne, were touched by the children sleeping on the footpath opposite Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. Affordable lodging was the main challenge for families of patients.
July 2015 | www.spiceroutemag.com
Many families, dejected with the difficulties of such a life, seeing their child suffer and facing joblessness while in Mumbai for treatment, often abandon the treatment midway.
People coming from small towns and villages prefer to go back to their villages where their child might live for a few months, but die in dignity, in the comfort of their home. Such abandonment of treatment is one of the biggest causes of mortality in these young patients. The pathos of this situation struck the Kaviratnes and they decided to work towards creating a temporary shelter for