To make the journeys of cancer warriors a little easier, CHF has launched a care program: distributing fresh watermelons, food packets, Amul buttermilk, water & pre-loved clothes to beat the heat.

People travel from all across India to Tata Hospital, Parel in Mumbai, as it is India's best hospital exclusively for the treatment of cancer patients. In this hospital, patients receive adequate care and treatment at very affordable costs. Every day, around 400-500 new admissions come from the interior parts of our country. Even though there are many dharamshalas and ashrams near the hospital that can accommodate these cancer patients, they are still inadequate to handle the volumes of people that come. Due to a scarcity of beds in these accommodation-providing charities, these underprivileged people are compelled to sleep on the streets even while undergoing such painful treatments. It is heartbreaking to see little children and elderly people along with their feeding tubes, urine bags and all those bandages lying down on the dirty footpath and eating food near overflowing garbage bins. Even in the scorching heat, they have nowhere else to go.

From Saturday, 7th May 2022, CHF launched the Beat The Heat Campaign to help these patients. We regularly distribute food packets of fresh watermelons and Amul buttermilk along with bottles of water. We also hand out pre-loved clothes that we collected from our friends and relatives across Mumbai. Each story that we hear is heartbreaking, like young men who have left their jobs to accompany their parents here for their treatment. Some women are suffering from oral cancer or ovarian cancer and have to leave their children behind to live here on the footpath with their husbands during the treatment.

One day, as we arrived outside the hospital, our attention was drawn to a man who was suffering from mouth cancer and constantly vomiting blood. It was excruciating to see him go through this alone. Before it was too late, our volunteers alerted the hospital staff and immediately rushed him inside the hospital.

As we hand out these small food items, it is always heartwarming to see the people receive them with so much gratitude. We are doing this program on a more regular basis outside Tata Cancer Hospital. We’re trying our very best to do so and help these people in every possible way.

In memory of your loved ones who have lost their lives to cancer, or those who have survived this fight and are still with you by the grace of God, please donate to CHF so that we can help many more such cancer patients. A one-time donation or a monthly contribution will go a long way in supporting these poor patients.