Can’t Afford Cancer Treatment: Guru Harikrishn Foundation, a Non-Profit Institution Supports in Making Quality Cancer Treatment Affordable for Patients

Gauri, Manju, Shahbaz, all three of them are middle-aged, bread earners for their families. All three of them had cancer and they can’t afford the treatment cost. Gauri had a timely Thyroid surgery which cured her of her disease along with preservation of her voice and minimal scar in the neck. Manju is now free from her Breast cancer and back to her job with no change in her body habitus with hair growth also normalized. Shahbaz recently fought and won over oral (mouth) cancer second time without much change in his facial structure, speech and swallowing. On both occasions, the cancer removal was done with advanced reconstructive surgery. All three underwent surgery at one of Delhi’s best Private hospitals with advanced infrastructure at a nominal cost.

This has been possible through the support of Guru Harikrishn (GHK) Foundation (www.harikrishn.org), not-for-profit arm of Art of Healing Cancer (www.artofhealingcancer.com). GHK Foundation envisages to establish an oncology service that provides treatment of international standards at the most economical costs, without any compromise on ethics.

According to Dr Mandeep S Malhotra (Clinical Lead & Mentor, GHK Foundation, www.harikrishn.org), “ICMR suggests the number of Indians suffering from cancer, will increase to 29.8 million in 2025 from 26.7 million in 2021; more than 7 lakh death in India in the year 2018. Lack of awareness in patients leads to cancer presenting at advanced stages leading to a large number of deaths. Cancer treatment is an extensive, expensive and complex process. It involves multimodality in form of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, etc. Limited Access to right cancer treatment also contributes to the rising cancer deaths in our country. Large Public Funded/supported institutes provide quality cancer treatment, but they are limited in number and overburdened. Private sector hospitals provide almost all forms of advanced cancer treatment, but the cost makes it out of bounds for a majority of our population. GHK Foundation (www.harikrishn.org) is a great step in bridging the gap between patient and treatment.”

Mr. Arpan Talwar (Director, GHK Foundation, www.harikrishn.org) explains the contribution of GHK foundation, “We are setting up outpatient Clinics and chemotherapy day-care centres at different parts of Delhi NCR. Further collaborating with good specialty diagnostic laboratories and imaging centres to provide support for investigations like MRI, PET-CT, Histopathology, IHC markers, etc, for proper evaluation and staging of cancers. We are developing special low-cost packages at different super specialty hospitals for surgery, high-risk chemotherapy, intensive care, and radiation therapy."

Mr. Manjit Singh, (Director, GHK Foundation, www.harikrishn.org) mentions, “Care is given with empathy and dignity of the patient is maintained and it is ensured that such intense cancer treatment is done at affordable costs. Our team consists of Specialized Oncology Consultants, RMOs, highly trained and empathetic nurses and skilled technicians. We are providing support to patients suffering from various Head & Neck Cancers including Thyroid Cancer, Oral Cancer, Oesophagus Cancer, and Breast Cancer, Gynaecological Cancers like Ovarian Cancer, Gastrointestinal cancers and Blood Cancers. The aim is to touch as many lives as possible and to contribute to making them better."