A philanthropic “Donate a Life” fund, established by a cancer speciality hospital here, has saved the lives of 176 children suffering from blood cancer with an effective treatment. The social support has been mobilised during the last decade to deal with the curable cancers, which had earlier often led to deaths.
The fund, launched in August 2014 at Bhagwan Mahaveer Cancer Hospital, has so far registered 272 children for their multi-stage and prolonged treatment lasting one to two years. Among them, 168 have been successfully cured, and eight are under treatment with encouraging results, while 17 have died.
Hospital’s director (Clinical Services) S.G. Kabra told The Hindu on Thursday (December 18, 2025) that several young children were deprived of treatment because of inability of their parents to bear the expenses. The estimated cost of complete treatment is ₹5 lakh, for which the philanthropists, trusts, donors and some private companies have been making contributions over the years.
A private bank has provided support worth ₹5.25 crore from its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund during the last five years. Dr. Kabra said the three types of cancers treated in the welfare project were acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, acute promylocytic leukaemia and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“These cancers are amenable to curative treatment among the children below 14 years selected under the fund. We treat it as the children’s entitlement, as allowing a child to die of a curable cancer because of poverty it unacceptable,” Dr. Kabra said.
The entire cost of treatment, medicine, nursing and investigation is borne from the corpus. Dr. Kabra, who has authored several books on legal applications to medical science and ethics, said the children who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled and supported throughout their treatment and follow-up.
Alveera, 16, studying in class X, is living a normal and happy life after her treatment, with regular follow-ups showing no relapse. Similarly, Divyansh Agarwal, 20, has completed Bachelor of Computer Applications after his recovery with four cycles of chemotherapy, followed by Involved Field Radiotherapy.
Dr. Kabra said the treatment for all children included chemotherapy, radiotherapy, oral medicine, injections and multiple investigations. The project has given relief to the families and enabled the children to lead a normal and productive life, becoming an asset to the society.
