Actor crowdsources money for wife’s cancer treatment
MUMBAI: The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the livelihood of hundreds of people across the country. One among them is a 44-year-old actor — Talib Mehdi — who is struggling to arrange money for the treatment of his wife, a cancer patient.
Mehdi has worked in several Hindi movies and OTT series like Saala Khadoos, Allah Ke Banday and Mirzapur among others. Everything went smoothly for the actor until January 2020 when his wife Sarita was diagnosed with cancer in her uterus. She was immediately admitted to a private hospital where she underwent her first surgery. But soon, it was discovered that she had developed another cancerous tumour.
To add to their misery, Covid-19 struck in March 2020 and the whole nation came to a standstill for months together. All of Mehdi’s movie projects were stalled and he was left without any monthly income. “Since March, I haven’t earned any single penny due to the pandemic. In the midst of all this, I spent over ₹20 lakh for the treatment of my wife. But, even after undergoing three surgeries, she hasn’t recovered completely. There are 5-10% of tumour cells still existing in her body,” said Mehdi, a resident of Mira-bhayander.
Due to her severe health condition, she cannot undergo chemotherapy. Thus, the present tumour cells in her body are growing faster. “To control the growth of the tumour, she has been undergoing immunotherapy which costs us around ₹1 lakh a month. Even though we see a little improvement, her condition is still fragile. Her weight also has reduced to 43kg. She does not eat that much due to loss of appetite,” said Mehdi.
For the treatment of his wife, Mehdi needs over ₹20 lakh. But as he has lost his source of income in the pandemic, he has started a crowdsourcing campaign on the portal, Ketto.