Friends of cancer victims spread awareness
Members of Wings of Relief Trust educate workers on cancer, detection and treatment
Acharitable trust in Kerala, India, which was started by a group of young men pained by the demise of their school friends due to cancer, is spreading its wings to UAE’s labour accommodation clusters.
The UAE chapter of ‘Wings of Relief’ (WoR) has launched cancer awareness campaigns to educate the workers in labour accommodations here.
The first such campaign was held at the labour accommodation of Al Nuaimi Group in Muhaisnah earlier this month.
Over 100 workers benefited from the medical camp, which also marked the 10th death anniversary of Roopak T., one of the two friends whose deaths paved the way for the launch of the trust, said its founder member Arun Chandran, who now lives in Ras Al Khaimah.
“Roopak and another friend of us, Hari B. Pillai, were alumni of St Paul’s School, Nariyapuram in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. Till we got to know about their condition, we never knew how cancer patients, and their near and dear ones, coped with the wretched disease,” Arun told Gulf News.
He said the friends from the same batch realised that the best and most expensive treatments, including bone marrow surgery, did nothing to arrest the progress of the disease. Then they started the trust as a movement to create a difference in the society by fighting against cancer and preventing it. It was inaugurated by famous cancer specialist Dr V.P. Gangadharan on July 21, 2016, the third death anniversary of Hari.
Wings of Relief has roped in veteran Malayalam actor Raghavan, father of actor Jishnu, whose valiant struggle against cancer went in vain, as the honorary patron of the trust.
Apart from spreading awareness about cancer, the trust aims to support preventive, timely and effective cancer detection and treatment by promoting camps for screening for symptoms of cancer, and providing information on various treatment alternatives after detection.
It is also providing financial aid to cancer patients who cannot afford to bear the cost of treatment. “Since some of us now live in the UAE, we wanted to expand our mission to the schools and labour accommodations here to spread awareness about cancer,” said Arun.
The first such camp saw the participation of student volunteers from Indian School Ajman and Deepak T, brother of Roopak, who is also a WoR member. The camp also offered basic life-support training to the workers.
“We have tied up with Aster-Access Clinics to conduct monthly camps. Our aim is to educate the workers in the languages they know,” said Arun who is currently in Kerala to organise the second anniversary of WoR with a cancer seminar and medical camp today.