– ‘Sanjeevani – Life Beyond Cancer’(on Nov 28,2021)
2. Shri Dilip Patel introduced the speaker of the webinar, Ms. Ruby Ahluwalia, an IRAS officer of the 1986 batch and currently the Principal Financial Advisor of the Central Railways. A cancer victor herself, she is the force behind ‘Sanjeevani … Life Beyond Cancer’ – a not-for-profit organization which works towards rehabilitation of people afflicted by cancer and trains them to provide care and counseling to other patients and their families.
3. Ms. Ruby Ahluwalia thanked ICCfG for inviting her to the webinar. She was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer in 2009, which she battled for 3 years before she recovered. All this while, when she used to visit the Tata cancer hospital at Mumbai, she saw so many people with little or no resources and without any hope, and that was something that haunted her. There were times during her illness and treatment that she felt completely tired and thought of giving up, but it was those faces in the hospital apart from her family and friends, which kept her going.
Once she was better and joined work, she thought that she must do more for the distressed patients she used to come across in the hospital; she was well-educated and was in a position as a Public Servant to do something helpful. So, in 2012, she founded a non-profit called ‘Sanjeevani – Life Beyond Cancer’ with the intent of empowering the cancer patients. Her intention was not to do charity like giving them money for treatment, but wanted to empower them. So many of the cancer patients simply go into a shell and are not able to function normally even in cases where they do get cured.
The latest report of WHO says that in the coming years, 1 out of every 9 Indians is going to be diagnosed with one form of cancer or another. However, 85% of cancers are preventable and avoidable, and this something that she wants to work on.
CanSahyogi was the first project she started with the Tata cancer hospital. The patients who come to the hospital often feel lost. Sanjeevani put in place a team of people to completely hand-hold the patients from the time they enter the hospital till a later stage, and assist with doctor-patient interactions, financial assistance through government schemes, accommodations, making them aware of the side effects of the treatment and how to cope with them, and more. In government hospitals, a cancer patient comes to the doctor with a lot of hope and for him, the doctor is like God; unfortunately, the doctor is so hard-pressed for time that he is not able to give each patient more than 2-3 minutes of his time. This tends to shatter the patient emotionally and psychologically.
What started in Mumbai has now been replicated in 18 cities of India and has touched the lives of over 3.5 lakh patients across the country. An Impact Study conducted by Nirmala-Niketan College of Social Work found out that 75% of the people said that they could not have gone forward with their treatment without the support provided by Sanjeevani.
She felt that people who could be the best suited to deliver this programme were cancer survivors themselves, having gone through everything personally. Her interactions with Tata hospital revealed that there was no course in India or anywhere in the world to train cancer survivors and their families to become caregivers for cancer patients. So, she took leave and designed a 4- month full time training programme with a curriculum, now known as CanSaarthi. It includes 120 hours of theory and 240 hours of practical learning. All the people thus trained are employed by hospitals, nursing homes, and even for home-care.
Through the Satori initiative, they engage in sessions with the patients on how they can improve their immunity, which is the key component in fighting off cancer cells. The programme has yielded phenomenal results and now even doctors have started endorsing it.
The CanChetna program conducts free awareness drives that promote open discussions about cancer, the symptoms, how to conduct self-examinations, the need for early detection and the importance of adopting healthy lifestyles to keep cancer at bay.
COVID19 created new problems for cancer patients including treatment delays; the CanAhaar programme was launched to see to the nutritional needs of the most vulnerable cancer patients, and boxes containing nutritional food was distributed to them.
All the programmes of Sanjeevani are free of cost and they work only in government hospitals. Her dream is that in another 3 years, they should be working in one nodal hospital of every State through which the government dispenses financial schemes.
She said that she has recently put in her papers for an early retirement, to devote herself full time to Sanjeevani.
4. Shri Sanjay Kothari quoted Jacob Lew: “I think there is no higher calling in terms of a career than public service, which is a chance to make a difference in people’s lives and improve the world.”
He suggested that Ms. Ahluwalia could continue her work as a bureaucrat and a public servant with a lighter workload, rather than quitting the civil service. Public servants can motivate others to do so many things. All public servants should give back to the society, as they are not really the best but have been lucky to become a part of the civil services. A number of people hear what you have to say when you are a public servant; perhaps Ms. Ahluwalia may like to reconsider her decision of early retirement.
5. Shri Shanti Narain said that he had the opportunity to call upon Ms. Ahluwalia a couple of months back in Mumbai, and was very impressed with the total commitment she had for the cause despite a very heavy and important charge given to her by the Railways. The way she found an opportunity to do such good work out of her personal adversity was very inspirational.
Shri Narain said that he was very grateful to her for addressing the participants of the webinar today, despite her very busy schedule.
—Ms. Ahluwalia said that she felt bad about not finding the time for the webinar twice earlier when Shri Narain approached her, as weekends are when she can devote time to Sanjeevani and almost on all weekends, she keeps travelling. Even today, she was speaking to everyone from Jaipur.
Several participants greatly appreciated the presentation made by Ms. Ahluwalia.
6. Shri Dilip Patel said that MS Ahluwalia was a person who would have a number of entries in Page 1 of ‘Life’s Balance Sheet’ (people who have done good to you without any expectations), and many-many more entries on Page 2 (where she has done good to others without any expectations). So, she was definitely a very effective CEO of her life.
He expressed his alarm at the frightening prediction of 1/9 people in India getting cancer in the coming years.
7. Ms. Ahluwalia said that all of us have cancer cells but our immune system fights them on a daily basis and the cancer cells are not able to overpower our body. Cancer is something that happens from the inside, and is not an infection that you can get from someone else, like the Corona Virus. However, if our immunity is low on a consistent basis for a long time, various diseases can happen, including cancer.
If we are able to keep our immunity intact, we can reduce the probability of having cancer.
The key factors for immunity are:
A. Food: what we eat, the time at which we eat it, the combination with which we eat it and the feelings with which we eat it, all have a role to play in how much and how well the food that we eat will be digested. Only the properly digested foods can give our body nutrition and build immunity; the undigested food just rots and releases toxins in our body.
B. Oxygen level of the body is very important. Alkalinity of the body is maintained by proper oxygenation, and cancer cells thrive in an acidic environment. However, most of us do not breathe properly, and enough oxygen doesn’t reach our lungs. We should keep our spinal cord straight and be aware of our breath. If we become aware of our breath, we will automatically breathe more deeply. She suggested that everyone should close their eyes and breathe consciously 50 times every hour.
C. How we think and our mental factors affect the biochemistry of the body and determine how much oxygen is inhaled, how well our digestive system works, and more. There is so much solid research now that says that the way we think is basically what determines our life.
She explained the fight-or-flight syndrome, where the body releases adrenalin as a protective mechanism in situations of threat to one’s life (like coming face-to-face with a wild animal). However, in modern day life, we feel threatened by many factors like our bosses, children, spouses and many other issues. The whole environment is full of stress, anxiety and fear. Adrenalin is released in such situations where there is actually no real threat to life but the minds still perceive it as threat. The wild animals are now in our minds—the adrenalin is released but we do not run and it is not utilized. This is very toxic to the body. Also, in releasing adrenalin, the other systems of the body like the nervous system, digestive system etc. are compromised, as the body concentrates on producing adrenalin even if it means compromising other systems. This reduces the alkalinity of the body and encourages cancer cells.
She said that through food, breath and how we think, 85% of the cancer cases can be avoided.
8. Shri Amaod Kanth stated his example where he simultaneously managed Prayas, an NGO doing a lot of work with the underprivileged, along with his challenging job as a police officer, for 20 years; and all these years, Prayas kept growing. He said that he agreed with Shri Kothari when the latter said that Ms. Ahluwalia could consider not giving up her job as a public servant to focus on Sanjeevani.
He said that he would like to know more about how Sanjeevani connects with government hospitals, as Prayas, too, does a lot of lot of work in healthcare and people come to them in severe distress and many in the terminal stage, including cancer patients. However, they have always found approaching the government hospitals to be very difficult.
Ms. Ahluwalia said that last stage cancer patients need palliative care, both physical and psychological. While there are other centers that provide physical care, Sanjeevani deals with only the psychological care, with focus on nutrition, yoga, Emotional Freedom Technique, music therapy, dance therapy and more. Through all this, the terminal patients calm down and start accepting their condition.
She said that each one of us has a limited amount of time on earth, with or without cancer; we need to utilize the time available to us in the best possible manner and make the best of it. In some of the virtual programmes conducted by Sanjeevani post-COVID, it was very heartening to see patients in their last days of life, lying in bed but grooving to the music.
In Delhi, they work with the Rajiv Gandhi hospital and the State Cancer Institute. Ms. Ahluwalia said that Sanjeevani would be happy to coordinate with Prayas wherever required, and Shri Kanth could get in touch with her separately.
9. Shri Prabhat Kumar thanked Ms. Ahluwalia and said that her efforts were outstanding, and that he was grateful to her for a brilliant presentation and powerful message.
He said that ICCfG would like to connect with Sanjeevani and he would also like to know how individuals or other local organizations and small local NGOs could connect with them.
Only yesterday, he met six young boys and girls, all between 18-21 years of age, who have received a fellowship under the LMAD or ‘Let’s Make A Difference’ programme, with the basic intention of making a difference in the aspirational districts. These are small change makers. People like Ms. Ahluwalia and Shri Kanth are mega change makers. It would be good if the mega change makers would be willing to mentor the small change makers and guide them in the right direction. Ms. Ahluwalia may like to consider being such a mentor.
10. Shri Kothari said that we must think about how to replicate Ms. Ahluwalia’s best practice far and wide. He also narrated a personal incident: in 2007, when he was donating blood on his birthday at RML hospital, the nurse almost chided him and said that he was only donating one bottle of blood, whereas he was in a position (as a public servant) to arrange for many more blood donations. Later when he rose to the rank of a Chief Secretary, he organized many drives for blood donation.
He said that he believed that every privileged person should adopt one person who is in need—an orphan, a widow, leper, acid-burn victim, and so many others who require a lot of support. We all have to give back to the society and it is especially important for the younger lot to come forward and take the lead.
11. Ms. Ahluwalia said that Sanjeevani also runs an internship programme that has 439 interns as of date. As far as LMAD or any such group is concerned, she said that she would be happy to spend time with the youngsters and guide them wherever required.
On replicability, she said that the models and projects developed by Sanjeevani are extremely replicable and scalable. She gave the example of Surat, where a few doctors approached her and she told them that she does not have the bandwidth to expand to Surat. They said that she should just guide them and they would take the lead. And they did actually do everything—Sanjeevani centres have been established in Surat.
The only thing holding Sanjeevani back in massive expansion is the funding. If there is enough funding, only in about a week’s time they can put up their team in a new place. They already have their YouTube channel etc., and are in the process of developing an app. Her dream is that the primary health centre of each and every village should have the app so that when the patients from the villages come to the cities, Sanjeevani is there to hand-hold them. If we are going to have 1/9 people of the population affected by cancer in the coming years, that is quite a sizeable chunk and we cannot have such a huge number of people not contributing to the society and economy. Therefore, it is important to work on their wellbeing.
It is not difficult to work on a cause close to one’s heart even with a full-time job. When she was thinking of staring Sanjeevani, people told her that she had a job, her family, and she would be putting too much on her plate. But with God’s grace, everything worked out. Public Servants have got so much experience that it only requires them a few hours to put up a system in place. The only thing required is passion for the cause. Some people told her to wait until retirement but that would have been too late. Now Sanjeevani has evolved its systems and processes and much of it works on automatic mode.
12. Shri Kothari commended the great work being done by Ms. Ahluwalia and said that he hoped that others, especially the younger officers, would get inspired. He thanked her on behalf of the Alliance of Change Makers for an excellent talk that was very interesting and motivating.
13. Ms. Ahluwalia thanked everyone and said that she was always available to contribute in any way that she could. She also mentioned the book that she has written— ‘Fragrance of A Wild Soul’—and said that the proceeds from it are donated to Sanjeevani. Shri Dilip Patel closed the session by thanking Ms. Ahluwalia and said that she was compassion personified. He also thanked all the participants for attending the webinar.
